UC-NRLF 


HOUSING 
PROBLEM 
IN  TEXAS 

A  STUDYOF  PHYSICAL 
CONDITIONS  UNDER  WHICH 
THE  OTHER  HALF  LIVES 

PREPRINTED  FROM  THE  * 
GALVESTON-DALLAS  NEWS 
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER,I9II 


GIFT   OF 


V0' 


The  Housing  Problem  in  Texas 

This  pamphlet  is  issued  by  the  publishers  of  The  News  to 
supply  a  demand  for  copies  of  a  series  of  articles  written  by 
George  Waverley  Briggs,  a  member  of  The  News  staff,  deal- 
ing with  housing  systems  that  prevail  in  the  leading  cities  of 
Texas,  to  note  their  deficiencies  and  advantages,  and  to  sug- 
gest means  of  correcting  present  evils  and  preventing  future 
complications.  The  series  was  originally  published  in  The 
Galveston-Dallas  News  November  iQ-December  17. 

SERIOUS  PROBLEM  OF  HOUSING  THEIR 

PEOPLE  CONFRONTS  TEXAS  CITIES 

(From  Issue  of  Nov.  19.) 

Pointing  his  index  finger  into  the  attentive  faces  of  a  mass  meeting  of  Dal- 
las men  last  Sunday,  Dr.  Charles  Stelzle  of  New  York  fervently  exclaimed: 

"I  insist  that  you  give  the  workingman  a  square  deal!" 

Unquestionably  the  doctrine  of  the  square  deal  is  the  secular  creed  of  the 
American  people.  Founded  upon  the  principle  of  "equal  rights  to  all,  special 
privileges  to  none,"  the  Nation  has  unbarred  its  doors  to  the  world's  downtrod- 
den and  oppressed,  with  the  invitation:  "Come  and  find,  refuge  here."  In  the 
American  heart  the  milk  of  human  kindness  is  not  congealed.  Sympathy  for  the 
poor  and  the  lowly  is  an  emotion  universally  latent  and  quickly  stirred  under 
impulse,  though  it  has  not  borne  in  its  practical,  helpful  expression  the  fruits  of 
constancy. 

The  workingman  does  not  desire  pity.  His  American  independence  revolts  at 
paternalism.  What  he  wants  is  co-operation.  All  he  asks  is  a  chance  to  win  his 
way  by  his  own  thrift  and  industry — a  chance  which,  when  -given  him.  becomes 
the  embodiment  of  the  square  deal,  the  practical  and  most  commendable  expres- 
sion of  that  sympathy  which  is  latent  in  the  American  heart. 

It  is  deplorable,  yet  true,  that  this  chance  is  often  denied  him.  The  policy  of 
the  square  deal  is  more  the  professed  than  the  practiced  creed  of  the  people, 
though  their  vaunted  allegiance  to  it  is  the  resonant  shibboleth  of  their  democ- 
racy. And  yet  their  temperament,  their  invariable  response  to  worthy  agitation, 
their  private  charities  and  philanthropies,  undeniably  establish  as  true  the  propo- 
sition that  their  indifferent  attitude  is  neither  studied  nor  heartless,  but  is  rather 
the  consequence  of  ignorance  of  conditions  and  of  unintentional  neglect  of  them 
in  their  phantom  chase  of  business. 

These  National  characteristics  are  exemplified  in  the  people  of  Texas.  The 
State  has  enjoyed  abundant  prosperity.  Its  population  has  increased  rapidly  un- 
der the  lure  of  its  fertile  fields  to  the  homeseeker  from  colder  and  less  pleasing 
climes.  Throughout  its  vast  and  fertile  farming  areas  the  jocund  God  of  Plenty 
has  filled  its  cup  of  fruitfulness.  The  boundless  ranges  of  the  West  have  made 
way  for  little  farms  where  happy,  industrious  families  abide,  content  in  the  joy 
of  wholesome  work  and  righteous  living. 

Factories  have  come  to  its  cities.  Railroads  have  contributed  to  its  com- 
mercial importance  in  the  marts  of  the  world.  Big  business  and  little^  business 
have  assisted  its  prosperity  and  made  of  it  a  land  of  commercial  and  industrial 
richness  and  productiveness.  •>  rv  p~r\ /* /> 

o9506G 


1+ 


4  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

PUBLIC  HAS  NOT  SEEN  OPPORTUNITY. 

Its  people  are  high-minded  and  loyal  to  principle.  Their  hospitality  is 
proverbial,  even  in  the  South,  where  hospitality  has  long  been  the  watchword  of 
the  home.  Their  benevolence  is  far-reaching  and  without  stint.  Charity  is  the 
symbol  of  their  religion  and  the  creed  of  their  lives  is  the  doctrine  of  the  square 
deal.  Where  opportunity  offers,  that  policy  is  applied,  ever  willingly,  ever  readily 
and  without  restriction  or  discrimination.  But  it  has  been  in  perceiving  the  op- 
portunity that  Texans  have  become  near-sighted.  They  see  the  opportunity  of 
applying  the  square  deal  immediately  around  them.  To  their  neighbors  its 
practice  is  never  withheld.  But  not  knowing  in  the  first  instance,  it  has,  per 
haps,  never  been  suggested  to  them  to  find  opportunity  for  the  square  deal  in 
the  alleys,  in  the  factory  sections  of  the  town,  in  the  homes  where  unskilled 
working  people  live — in  short,  in  those  neglected  quarters  where  respectability 
and  an  unfair  deal  are  in  constant,  embittered  and  unrelenting  conflict.  Brought 
into  conflict  not  primarily  by  the  habits  of  the  people,  but  by  conditions  of  living 
which  a  neglectful  public  has  imposed  upon  them,  these  forces  are  at  work  in- 
cessantly and  society  must  pay  the  penalty,  whatever  it  may  be. 

There  is  no  intention  on  the  part  of  Texans  to  neglect  the  workingman.  They 
are  merely  not  acquainted  with  his  condition.  They  know  nothing  of  the  chief 
and  intimate  obstacles  of  his  life  over  which  he  can  not  climb  without  the  co- 
operation of  the  rest  of  the  community.  They  are  willing  to  assist  him  to  adjust 
his  labor  differences  when  their  gravity  impresses  them  sufficiently  to  distract 
them  from  their  occupations.  If  his  family  is  in  want,  their  purses  are  generously 
open  to  his  needs.  But  beyond  that  thev  have  not  gone,  largely  because  they 
nave  not  known,  and  in  pursuing  their  philanthropies  they  have  almost  invariably 
overlooked  the  fundamental  element  in  his  life — the  house  he  lives  in. 

Widespread  attention  to  his  home  becomes  now  the  surest  means  of  apply- 
ing to  the  laboring  man  the  principle  of  the  square  deal.  Give  him  relief  from 
the  crowded  houce,  equip  him  with  facilities  of  housing  necessary  to  the  proper 
rearing  of  his  children  for  clean  and  healthy  living  and  to  the  promotion  of  that 
abiding  happiness  which  it  is  his  right  to  enjoy;  in  short,  make  of  his  living  place 
a  home  in  every  sense  of  that  endearing  word,  and  the  first  long  step  shall  have 
been  taken  toward  administering  to  him  the  help  he  wistfully  desires,  the  right  he 
justly  demands — a  square  deal. 

This  is  the  phase  of  the  housing  question  that  concerns  the  workingman  him- 
self. The  problem  is  thus  perceived  through  the  perspective  of  philanthropy. 
Yet,  aside  from  the  altruistic  motive  that  prompts  assistance  to  him,  there  is  in 
the  movement  for  better  housing  the  practical  idea  of  self-adyancement — a  vital 
consideration  of  society  as  a  whole,  which  has  too  long  been  regarded  as  a 
work  of  destiny,  insusceptible  of  human  influence  and  not  demanding  it.  How- 
ever, leading  minds,  recognizing  the  virtue  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  truism,  "We  all 
go  up  or  down  together,"  have  perceived  the  need  of  accelerating  the  normal  de- 
velopment of  society  by  eliminating  its  artificial  retardents  and  controlling  those 
natural  backward  tendencies  which  assert  themselves  when  conditions  of  life  are 
permitted  to  fall  below  the  normal. 

NATION'S  SEED  SOWN  IN  HOME. 

Seeking  to  discover  the  principal  source  of  agencies  that  exert  both  baneful 
and  benevolent  influences  upon  society's  growth,  investigation  of  sociologists  has 
led  them  to  the  home.  Their  two-fold  purpose  has  been  to  arrest  the  evil  and 
to  promote  the  good,  relying  for  beneficial  results  upon  the  well-grounded  trust 
that  racial  progress  may  be  hastened  in  proportion  to  the  employment  of  wisdom 
and  experience  in  directing  aright  the  channels  of  socinl  tendencies.  They  have 
found  that  at  the  hearthstone  the  seeds  of  the  Nation  are  ^own.  There,  nur 
tured  by  wholesome  influences,  through  normal  evolution  they  germinate  and 
bloom  into  the  fruit  of  substantial  progress;  or,  embedded  in  toxic  cultures  that 
have  been  caused  by  ignorance  and  negleci,  they  degenerate  into  prolific  sources 
of  vice,  crime  and  social  retrogression. 

Upon  a  moment's  reflection  it  will  be  accepted  that  the  home  and  its  influ 
ence  are  responsible  for  the  character  of  the  Nation — its  mental,  moral  and  physi- 
cal vigor  or  decrepitude.  The  proverb,  "As  the  twig  is  bent  so  i?  the  tree  in- 
clined," has  become  the  law  of  the  moral  as  well  as  the  natural  world,  and  the 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  5 

deeper  investigators  delve  into  the  effects  of  the  inevitable  application  of  this  rule 
the  more  responsible  and  important  becomes  in  their  eyes  the  labor  of  bending 
the  twig  aright. 

Briefly,  therefore,  the  primary  consideration  of  self-interest  in  current  housing 
reforms  is  the  betterment  of  conditions  that  surround  the  citizens  of  tomorrow — 
the  children  of  today.  The  underlying  purpose  is  to  rear  a  Nation  of  sturdy,  self- 
respecting  and  self-reliant  men  and  to  reduce  to  the  minimum  those  conditions 
of  early  life  that  frequently  force  their  victims  into  pathways  of  abject  poverty 
and  degradation.  The  champion  of  good  housing  for  the  unskilled  workingman 
is  laboring  not  so  much  for  the  present  as  for  the  future. 

Housing  reform  recognizes  another  principle  in  the  solution  of  its  problems. 
Organized  charity  frequently  teaches  that  it  is  to  the  worthy  alone  that  its  efforts 
should  be  directed.  It  justifies  this  contention  upon  the  ground  that  charity 
dispensed  among  unworthy  recipients  becomes  merely  an  invitation  ro  shiftless- 
ness  and  sloth.  Yet  experience  has  taught  that  the  menace  to  society  is  not 
from  its  worthy  poor.  It  is  the  unworthy,  the  very  flotsam  and  jetsam  of  the 
social  tide,  which  comprises  the  social  incubus.  The  accepted  theory  of  hous- 
ing reform,  therefore,  does  not  discriminate  between  the  good  and  the  bad.  It 
deals  with  both  as  inseparable  components  of  a  section  of  the  community  whose 
condition  of  living  must  be  bettered  for  the  general  welfare;  because  the  entire 
community  is  affected  by  the  condition  of  its  component  parts. 

Texas  has  its  housing  problem.  In  respect  of  many  elements  it  is  unique. 
It  will  be  the  effort  of  this  series  of  articles  to  show  a  few  pen  pictures  and  il- 
lustrations of  housing  conditions  prevailing  in  this  State,  that  the  citizens  them- 
selves may  know  with  what  problems  they  will  have  to  deal  eventually  if  not 
presently.  Together  with  these,  remedies  will  be  suggested,  culled  from  the  besr 
wisdom  and  experience  of  the  age,  in  the  hope  that  they  will  be  of  assistance  to 
Texans  in  solving  problems  of  their  own. 


INATTENTION  TO  HOUSING  CAUSED 

NEW  YORK'S  "HORRIBLE  EXAMPLE" 

(From   Issue  of  Nov.   20.) 

Texans.  perhaps,  are  familiar  with  social  conditions  that  prevail  in  the  more 
congested  centers  of  population.  The  housing  problem  has  been  a  favored 
topic  of  newspaper  and  magazine  writers  for  a  long  while.  The  sympathy  of 
the  Nation,  when  its  attention  has  been  suddenly  concentrated  upon  evils  as 
they  exist,  has  been  freely  extended.  Society  recognizes  these  evils,  has  long 
regretted  their  existence,  but  it  has  been  slow  to  act;  and,  in  consequence  of 
its  sluggishness,  New  York,  Boston,  Cincinnati  and  other  cities  of  the  Nation 
are  today  facing  problems  vitally  affecting  the  welfare  and  destiny  of  large  parts, 
if  not  all,  of  their  citizenships,  the  final  and  adequate  solution  of  which  can  not 
be  definitely  foreshadowed  even  by  the  energy  and  the  money  that  are  being 
expended  toward  its  attainment.  Society  begins  to  realize  that  it  has  too  long 
deferred  the  settlement  of  social  problems  which,  when  formative,  were  of  easy 
solution,  but  which,  when  formed  and  crystallized  into  concrete  resistance  to 
remedial  measures,  are  of  difficult  mastery. 

Statictics  have  proven  that  the  most  densely  populated  city,  in  the  world 
is  Xcw  York.  Conditions  there  are  without  parallel,  no  city  of  the  old  world 
nor  of  the  new  affording  so  horrible  an  example  of  the  evils  of  inadequate 
housing  as  does  the  American  metropolis.  New  York  houses  the  great  mass 
of  its  working  people  in  tenements,  reaching  far  into  the  air  and  extending  for 
miles  throughout  the  city.  Congestion  and  overcrowding  reach  the  depths  of 
their  evil  there.  Nowhere  has  there  been  such  disregard  of  light  and  air  and 
conditions  of  health  and  decency  in  the  dwellings  of  human  beings.  More  than 
two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  cit>  live  in  multiple  dwellings.  There  are 
more  than  one  hundred  thousand  separate  tenement  houses.  The  statement  is 
made  by  Lawrence  Veiller.  who  has  made  a  life-long  study  of  the 
subject,  that  "we  have  over  ten  thousand  tenement  houses  of  the  hope- 
less and  discredited  'dumb-bell'  type  with  narrow  'air  shafts'  furnishing  neither 
sunlight  nor  fresh  air  to  the  thousands  of  people  living  in  the  rooms  openina 


8  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

on  them;  we  have  over  twenty  thousand  tenement  houses  of  the  older  type  in 
which  most  of  the  rooms  are  without  light  or  ventilation;  we  have  over  one 
hundred  thousand  dark,  un ventilated  rooms  without  even  a  window  to  an  ad- 
joining room;  we  have  eighty  thousand  buildings,  housing  nearly  three  million 
people,  so  constructed  as  to  be  a  standing  menace  to  the  community  in  the  event 
of  fire,  most  of  them  built  with  wooden  stairs,  wooden  halls  and  wooden  floors, 
and  thousands  built  entirely  of  wood.  Over  a  million  people  have  no  bathing- 
facilities  in  their  homes;  while  even  a  greater  number  are  limited  to  the  use 
of  sanitary  conveniences  in  common  with  other  families,  without  proper  privacy; 
over  a  quarter  of  a  million  people  had  in  1900  no  other  sanitary  conveniences 
than  antiquated  yard  privies;  and  even  today  two  thousand  of  these  privy  sinks 
still  remain,  many  of  them  located  in  densely  populated  districts,  a  source  of 
danger  to  all  in  the  neighborhood,  facilitating  the  spread  of  contagious  disease 
through  the  medium  of  the  common  house-fly." 

ROOTS  OF  TROUBLE  WERE  SMALL. 

This  is  modern  New  York.  To  be  sure  the  picture  is  appalling;  and  yet  no 
investigation  which  may  be  pursued  will  reveal  better  and  more  forcefully  the 
insidious  and  subtle  encroachment  of  popular  congestion  than  will  a  brief  study 
of  these  conditions,  together  with  a  reference  to  the  history  of  their  develop- 
ment. A  moment's  reflection  will  make  it  impossible  to  cast  the  figures  aside 
with  the  remark,  "Oh,  well,  that's  New  York,  and  we  have  nothing  like  that  and 
doubtless  never  will  have." 

Before  the  War  of  1812  New  York  had  less  than  one  hundred  thousand  in- 
habitants. Its  territory  was  more  than  suffcient  to  take  care  of  them 
and  apparently  to  accommodate  all  normal  increases.  It  has  frequently  been 
said  that  New  York  did  not  apprehend  the  coming  of  congested  conditions  until 
it  awakened  one  morning  to  the  disconcerting  fact  that  it  had  no  adequate 
place  to  house  the  greater  mass  of  its  people.  After  hostilities  had  ceased  and 
the  United  States  had  re-established  its  stability  as  a  Nation  offering  homes  anc' 
civil  liberty  to  all  who  might  desire  them,  foreigners  crowded  the 
port  with  the  arrival  of  every  ship  and  located  themselves  in  the  city  in  search 
of  a  livelihood. 

The  situation  was  allowed  to  adjust  itself  after  a  haphazard  fashion.  There 
was  no  systematic  planning  of  accommodations  for  the  increasing  population. 
The  idea  of  city  planning  had  not  been  born.  New  York  was  short-sighted.  It 
did  not  penetrate  the  future  and  provide  early  preventive  measures  to  control 
conditions  that  subsequently  overwhelmed  it. 

As  late  as  1835.  seventy-six  years  ago.  it  was  within  the  power  of  New  York 
to  control  its  social  situation.  In  that  year  its  population  numbered  only  270,000. 
Problems  that  were  rooted  in  the  town  of  less  than  100.000  were  given  no  greater 
attention  by  the  city  of  270.000. 

Its  tenement  house  problem  was  growing  but  not  grown.  The  old  homes 
of  the  Knickerbockers,  the  elite  of  the  early  colony,  which  had  been  vacated  as 
the  encroachment  of  the  business  districts  drove  their  affluent  occupants  farther 
toward  the  quietude  of  rural  precincts,  were  converted  into  makeshift  lodging 
.houses  to  accommodate  as  many  families  and  persons  as  their  physical  limita- 
tions would  allow.  The  plan  of  the  tenement  house  began  to  ramify  through. nit 
the  city.  The  tide  of  immigration  continued.  The  situation  grew  from  bad  to 
worse.  And  soon  NCAV  York  found  itself  confronted  by  irremediable  conditions 
that  have  made  the  world  stand  aghast.  They  developed,  too,  in  less  than  the 
period  of  three  score  years  and  ten,  the  allotted  span  of  human  life. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  further  into  the  .housing  problem  of  Xew  York. 
As  far  back  as  this  generation  of  readers  can  remember  New  York  has  been  the 
"horrible  example"  of  social  neglect.  The  instance  is  cited  merely  to  impress 
the  fact  that  New  York's  tenement  problem — the  wor  t  in  the  civilized  world — • 
was  conceived  in  the  error  of  nnpreparedness.  Neglect  at  a  time  when  atten- 
tion and  the  employment  of  judicious  wisdom  could  have  prevented  or  largely 
restrained  the  evils  that  have  grown  up,  is  now  claiming  its  compensation  in  the 
unrelaxing  and  discouraging  battle  through  which  the  citv  hopes  by  courageous 
preseverance  and  fabulous  expenditures  of  money  to  attain  ev, ritual  solution  of 
its  greatest  problem. 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  9 

THE  ANALOGY   BROUGHT   HOME. 

From  this  should  be  gleaned  the  single  thought  that  when  the  present  tene- 
ment evils  of  New  York  took  root,  the  metropolis  was  not  superior  in  numbers 
of  people  to  the  Dallas,  the  San  Antonio,  the  Houston  of  today. 

Ponder  for  a  moment  upon  what  that  means. 

New  York's  troubles  began,  not  in  the  form  of  metropolitan  problems,  but 
in  the  insidious  and  deceptive  guise  of  conditions  that  confront  the  growing 
towns  of  Texas  right  now. 

The  same  inexorable  laws  are  at  work  in  Texas,  whose  disregard  brought 
shame  to  New  York.  They  can  be  ignored  in  Texas  with  no  more  security 
against  evil  consequences  than  they  were  in  New  York. 

It  is  true  that  at  the  present  there  is  no  city  in  Texas  which  has  a  serious 
problem  WHERE  to  house  its  people.  Neither  did  New  York  have  that  problem 
seventy-five  years  ago. 

But  almost  without  exception  the  leading  cities  of  Texas  indisputably  have 
even  now  the  problem  HOW  to  house  their  people. 

This  being  true,  the  experience  of  New  York,  Boston,  Cincinnati  and  others 
of  their  class,  which  have  grown  in  less  than  one  hundred  years  from  comfort- 
able towns  to  seething  masses  of  congested  humanity,  jambed  into  areas  too 
small  to  accommodate  adequately  half  the  number  of  their  people,  should 
quicken  the  sensibilities  of  citizens  of  Dallas,  of  Galveston,  of  Houston,  to  the 
unquestionable  possibility  that  one  hundred  years  may  bring  them  face  to  face 
with  a  baffling  social  predicament. 

The  wise  Health  Department  guards  against  smallpox  or  cholera  before  its 
unsuspecting  dependents  are  in  the  fell  clutch  of  epidemic.  Discovery  of  endemic 
cases  spurs  the  health  guardians  to  prevent  by  quarantine  and  isola- 
tion that  which  they  could  not,  perhaps,  control  or  cure  when  its 
magnitude  had  grown  to  epidemic  state.  This  is  the  only  successful  theory  of 
treating  evils  which  are  the^outgrowth  of  bad  housing  conditions.  They  must 
be  forestalled;  it  is  too  difficult  to  cure  they  after  they  have  developed.  New 
York  has  thrown  up  its  hands  with  the  wail,  "The  tenements  are  with  us  to 
stay;  we  must  do  the  best  we  can  and  hope." 

Under  the  prevailing  system  of  values  even  the  lives  of  human  beings  can 
not  be  weighed  against  stupendous  financial  destruction.  It  would  bankrupt 
New  York  to  destroy  its  tenements.  Once  rooted,  therefore,  evil  housing  condi- 
tions resist  and  defy  drastic  and  persistent  efforts  to  eradicate  them.  Conse- 
quently, the  thought  should  suggest  itself  that  it  is  by  far  simpler  to  build 
houses  properly  for  the  unskilled  working  people,  to  establish  adequate  regula- 
tions governing  their  maintenance,  and  to  correct  forming  evils  before  they  be- 
come unmanageable  through  their  accretions  of  strength  from  inattention  and 
neglect,  than  it  would  be  to  deal  successfully  with  the  tremendous  task  which 
continued  neglect  may  have  brought  about. 

It  is,  therefore,  the  wise  city  that  will  look  about  it,  determine  what  its 
deficiencies  are.  inaugurate  measures  to  repair  them  and  to  provide  means  for 
the  continued  development  of  its  physical  parts  along  logical,  constructive,  well- 
defined  lines,  leaving,  if  possible,  no  opportunity  for  chance  to  work  unexpected 
harm. 

In  short,  Dallas  and  Galveston,  San  Antonio  and  Houston  and  all  the  cities 
of  Texas,  now  while  they  may,  should  profit  by  New  York's  "horrible  example." 
In  years  to  come  it  may  be  too  late. 


TEXAS  CITIES  HAVE  TENEMENTS 

SHOCKING  IN  THEIR  INADEQUACIES 

(From  Issue   of    Nov.    21.) 

There  are  in  Texas  no  tenement  houses  meeting  the  popular  idea  of  such  insti- 
tutions. The  public's  conception  of  a  tenement  house  pictures  a  large,  tall  building 
in  which  hundreds  of  persons  find  meager  refuge  under  all  sorts  of  revolting  con- 
ditions. This  reveals  merely  the  magnitude  to  which  temenments  attain  in  the 
larger  cities,  especially  in  New  York.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  pitcure  of  the  tenement  which 


12  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

a  visitor  to  New  York  would,  perhaps,  carry  away  engraved  upon  his  memory. 
Yet  such  does  not  supply  an  exclusive  illustration  of  the  tenement  system.  The 
New  York  tenement  house  law  draws  no  such  distinction  in  its  definitions. 

Under  the  statute  of  New  York  a  tenement  house  is  "any  house  or  building, 
or  portion  thereof,  which  is  rented,  leased,  let  or  hired  out,  to  be  occupied,  or  is 
occupied,  or  is  intended,  aranged  or  designed  to  be  occupied  as  the  home  or  resi- 
dence of  three  families  or  more  living  independently  of  each  other,  and  doing  their 
cooking  upon  the  premises,  and  having  a  common  right  in  the  halls,  stairways, 
yard,  cellar,  water  closets  or  privies,  or  some  of  them,  and  includes  apartment 
houses  and  flat  houses." 

New  York,  being  the  original  home  of  the  tenement  house,  surely  should  know 
what  it  is.  And  under  its  definition,  despite  the  fact  that  popular  conception  is  not 
satisfied,  there  are  tenement  houses  in  Texas — many  of  them.  In  them,  too,  are 
found  conditions  just  as  foul,  just  as  revolting,  just  as  inhumane,  just  as  much  of 
an  eyesore  and  a  shame  to  the  community,  as  the  records  report  to  prevail  in  the 
notorious  tenements  of  New  York. 

The  foregoing  statement  is  made  after  mature  reflection.  Without  personal 
inspection  to  corroborate  it,  there  is  substantial  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the  writer 
that  it  will  be  accepted  absolutely  at  its  face  value.  Nevertheless,  there  is  no  dis- 
position to  exaggerate  the  recital  of  conditions  as  they  were  found  in  some  of  the 
Texas  cities,  and  the  writer  is  prone  to  believe  that  if  the  public  will  bear  with 
him  until  the  entire  series  of  articles  shall  have  been  completed,  the  preceding  dec- 
laration will  be  measiireably  supported  in  detail.  No  graphic  picture,  however,  can 
be  drawn  of  conditions  that  were  seen.  Nothing  but  personal  observation  will 
convey  an  adequate  idea  of  their  enormity. 

Between  housing  conditions  as  they  are  reported  to  prevail  in  New  York  tene- 
ments and  those  surcunding  the  workingmen  of  Texas,  there  are  but  two  distinct 
differences.  In  New  York  the  magnitude  of  evil  is  greater — far  greater.  Again  in 
New  York  one  of  the  conspicuous  blemis.hes  of  the  tenement  system  is  its  dark 
rooms — rooms  without  even  a  window  opening  to  an  adjoining  room.  New  York 
has  more  than  100,000  of  them  in  which  people  are  born,  live  and  die.  If  there  are 
multiple  dwellings  in  Texas  noticeably  possessing  this  architectural  atrocity,  the 
writer's  investigation  failed  to  elicit  information  concerning  them. 

JUST  AS  INTENSE  IN  TEXAS. 

But  excepting  these  two  elements  in  New  York's  housing  promlem — its  mag- 
nitude and  tenement  dark  rooms — Texas  is  pretty  well  equipped  to  match  in  inten 
sity  of  housing  evils  anything  that  has  yet  been  written  about  New  York. 

There  is  the  same  overcrowding  of  people — not  so  great  as  occurs  in  New 
York  tenements,  but  great  enough  to  impair  health  and  to  corrupt  morals. 

There  is  the  same  lodger  evil,  exerting  its  same  disrupting  influence  upon  the 
home. 

There  is  the  same  unsanitary  house,  built  without  bathroom,  running  water 
or  sewerage  connections. 

There  is  the  same  unsanitary  closet  in  the  yard,  affording  the  same  dangerous 
source  for  the  spread  of  contagion  through  the  medium  of  the  common  housefly. 

There  is  its  same  multiple  use  by  numerous  families. 

There  is  the  same  crowding  of  houses  upon  lots  too  small  for  one,  and  there 
is  the  same  general  unfitness  of  habitations  for  the  purposes  of  the  home. 

The  conspicuous  difference  is  that  New  York  is  bigger  and  its  problem  is 
bigger  and  consequently  more  aggravated.  But  in  the  intensity  of  the  evils  which 
make  up  this  problem  it  has  very  little  that  is  not  common  to  the  growing  cities 
of  Texas. 

Men  and  women,  who  by  long  study  and  investigation  have  become  experts  in 
this  line  of  sociological  endeavor,  are  agreed  that  bad  housing  consists  of  any  con- 
dition of  housing  impairing  the  physical,  moral  or  m:ntal  health  of  the  tenant;  any 
condition  of  housing  that  is  unsafe,  unsanitary  or  unfit  for  living  or  home-making, 
or  any  condition  of  housing  damaging  to  the  community  or  city.  Conditions  meet- 
ing each  of  the  distinct  parts  of  this  definition  are  found  in  Texas,  and  found  in 
shameful  abundance. 

The  immediate  victims  of  bad  housing  conditions  in  Texas — as  they  arc  every- 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  13 

where  else— are  the  laboring  people.  This  does  not  mean  the  destitute.  The  pau- 
pers are  much  worse  off.  They  live  where  they  can  find  a  place  to  sleep,  in  sheds, 
in  huts  or  in  the  alleys  of  the  cities.  Yet  the  houses  of  the  workingmen — the  heads 
of  families  who  earn  $7  a  week,  $10  a  week,  $15  a  week  or  slightly  more — are  fre- 
quently by  some  strange  misconception  regarded  by  the  public  as  the  homes  of 
the  very  poor. 

Investigation  will  prove  that  a  city's  social  problem  with  respect  to  housing 
does  not  so  much  concern  the  very  poor  as  it  does  the  industrious  laborer  and  his 
thrifty  family.  Industry  and  thrift  can  go  side  by  side  with  that  squalor  which  in- 
fluences, outside  and  beyond  the  tenant's  control,  impose  upon  him.  Many  of  the 
workingmen  would  like  to  better  conditions  surorunding  them;  others  would  not, 
perhaps,  because  they  have  been  so  long  used  to  scant  accommodations.  But 
whatever  their  attitude  may  be,  it  does  not  relieve  nor  excuse  the  conditions 
around  them. 

CONDITIONS  A  PUBLIC  MENACE. 

The  homes  of  the  poorest  paid  of  the  working  people  of  the  State — those  to 
whom  on  Labor  Day  the  politicians  are  wont  to  ascribe  the  stability  of  the  Na- 
tion— frequently  reveal  conditions  of  physical  depravity  that  are  beyond  adequate 
description.  Somehow,  a  popular  misconception  has  intruded  to  engender  the  idea 
that  only  large  cities  have  conditions  of  intense  degradation.  Dwellings  that  have 
been  described  as  "just  old  houses  where  poor  people  live,"  as  several  writers  have 
expressed  it,  are  upon  investigation  found  to  be  in  their  evil  conditions  actual 
lazar-houses  of  moral  and  physical  pestilential  agencies.  Homes  of  the  wealthy, 
which,  when  abandoned  by  their  original  occupants  and  turned  over  to  the  poor, 
not  infrequently  degenerate  into  sources  of  vice  and  disease  because  they  are  put 
to  uses  for  which  they  were  never  intended — those  of  multiple  residences.  Even 
a  slum — the  quintessential  evil  of  improper  housing  and  living  of  people — is  now 
technically  described  as  not  an  area  but  a  condition — a  condition  that  can  be  just 
as  intense  in  one  house  as  in  a  territory  covered  by  a  thousand.  Congestion  may 
aggravate  it,  but  congestion  is  not  essential  to  it. 

The  only  reason  that  Texas  cities  have  no  broad  areas  of  congested  evils 
arising  from  inadequate  housing  facilities  is  that  they  are  comparatively  small. 
It  can  not  be  denied  that  a  very  fair  and  productive  nucleus  for  a  wide  expanse  of 
physical  degradation  is  supplied  in  conditions  that  necessarily  prevail  where  in  a 
certain  city  of  Texas  more  than  one  hundred'dwellings  are  crowded  into  a  lot  ap- 
proximately 300  feet  long  by  70  or  eighty  feet  wide.  A  menacing  situation  has  an 
advantageous  start  in  limitations  that  impose  the  use  of  six  closets  upon  the  occu- 
pants of  more  than  fifty  two-room  houses.  Add  to  these  half  a  dozen  hydrants 
in  the  yard  as  the  only  water  supply  of  of  tlie  premises,  the  absence  of  drainage, 
the  practice  of  sleeping  four  to  six  and  even  more  in  one  small  room,  lack  of  proper 
sanitary  inspection  and  the  necessary  means  of  protecting  public  health  from  the 
contamination  of  disease-breeding  influences — with  all  these  things,  and  more, 
too  numerous  to  mention  here,  a  great  public  menace,  it  is  repeated,  has  a  pretty 
good  start. 

And  it  has  made  just  such  a  start  in  leading  Texas  cities. 

it  must  be  recalled  and  constantly  borne  in  mind  that  no  city — not  even 
New  York,  "the  horrible  example" — suffers  a  housing  problem  that  is  coexten- 
sive with  its  territorial  limits.  There  are  broad  areas  even  in  the  American 
metropolis  that  are  given  over  to  homes  that  meet  the  essential  requirements 
of  homes.  New  York's  problem  affects  only  parts  of  the  city,  but  they  happen 
to  be  the  biggest  parts.  In  Texas,  the  Housing  problems  of  the  leading  cities 
affect  vitally  only  their  smaller  parts,  their  more  restricted  areas. 

EVIDENCES  OF  TEXAS'  PROBLEM. 

In  those  parts  of  Texas  cities  where  such  problems  occur,  they  manifest 
themselves  through  a  number  of  striking  physical  evidences,  which,  as  it  will 
later  be  seen,  trace  their  effect  upon  the  tenants,  in  a  variety  of  moral  phenom- 
ena. In  the  first  place,  the  noticeable  clefect  in  Texas'  system  of  housing  por- 
tions of  its  working  people  is  the  proximity,  one  to  another,  of  the  houses  in 
which  it  compels  them  to  live.  The  dominant  method  of  housing  the  unskilled 


16  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

workingmen  in  all  the  cities  of  the  State  is  by  use  of  individual  houses  in 
contradistinction  to  the  large  multiple  house  which  forms  the  popular  concep- 
tion of  the  tenement  of  New  York.  This,  according  to  all  experts  on  housing, 
is  the  ideal  way  to  take  care  of  the  lab,  ring  people.  But  the  reasons  why  this 
method  is  considered  best  are  that  when  properly  carried  out  it  provides  privacy 
to  the  family,  a  yard  for  the  children,  sanitation  for  the  household  and  health 
and  attractiveness  to  the  community.  Now,  in  the  cities  of  Texas  those  reasons, 
for  the  most  part,  have  been  ignored,  and  the  exploitation  of  the  one-house  idea 
has  defeated  its  own  end  and  purpose.  The  absence  of  yards,  the  crowding 
together  of  .houses  and  the  application  of  the  one-house  method  to  the  exchequer 
of  the  owner  rather  than  to  the  benefit  of  the  tenant,  have  brought  about  in 
abundance  the  same  evils  which  opponents  of  New  York  tenements  so  relent- 
lessly berate.  « 

This  might  properly  be  considered  the  gravest  deficiency  in  Texas'  manner 
of  housing  its  working  people.  A  great  many  of  the  more  vicious  consequences 
of  bad  housing  are  traceable  directly  to  such  a  cause.  The  communities  have 
not  been  liberal  in  providing  lots.  The  yard  space  is  generally  too  confined. 
While  housing  experts  say  that  never  more  than  66  per  cent  of  the  lot  should 
be  occupied  by  the  house,  very,  very  frequently  no  regard  whatever  has  been 
given  to  yard  space.  There  are  instances  in  nearly  all  the  leading  cities  of 
Texas  of  row  upon  row  of  tenant  houses  separated  one  from  another  only  by  a 
distance  ranging  from  three  to  five  feet.  Couple  with  this  the  wide  practice  of 
building  laboring  men's  houses  behind  a  row  that  faces  the  street,  and  the  acme 
of  house-crowding  is  attained.  And  this  is  frequently  seen  in  Texas  cities. 

In  respect  of  other  things  essential  to  a  home,  besides  the  provision  of 
ample  premises,  Texas  cities  have  been  equally  inconsiderate.  Hundreds  and 
hundreds  of  laboring  men's  houses  have  been  built  without  bathrooms  or  bath- 
tubs. Just  as  many  have  been  erected  without  running  water  indoors.  A  small 
per  cent  only  is  equipped  with  sewerage  connections  and  thousands  of  outdoor, 
surface  closets  are  in  use  almost  in  the  very  .heart  of  the  larger  cities. 

Municipal  authorities  have  not  provided  rigid  sanitary  inspections,  and  have 
not  extended  their  sewer  systems  in  proportion  to  the  needs  of  the  several  com- 
munities. Sanitary  laws  are  not  always  thoroughly  enforced,  and  in  many  in- 
stances the  code,  itself,  is  deficient. 

Building  is  not  adequately  supervised  except  in  the  fire  Jiniits  of  the  towns, 
and  little  attention,  if  any  at  a'l,,has  been  paid  to  the  kind  of  house,  a  landlord 
shall  erect  and  rent  to  a  wage-earner. 

In  short,  the  cities  of  the  State  have  not  known  of  their  developing  hous- 
ing problem,  and  concerning  it  there  has  long  been  a  somnolent  apathy. 

A  trip  through  the  sections  of  Texas  cities  that  are  given  over  chiefly  to 
the  residences  of  laboring  classes  will  recall  the  words  of  H.  L.  Meader,  md 
impress  one  with  their  truth,  that — 

"Happiness  is  most  easily  attained  by  being  contented  with  one's  surround- 
ings, but  to  be  content  with  some  people's. surroundings  would  require  a  degree 
of  complacency  that  would  reflect  discredit  on  a  hog." 


SURVEY  OF  DALLAS  REVEALS  DEFECTS 

IN  SYSTEM  OF  HOUSING  ITS  PEOPLE 

(From   Issue   of  Nov.    22. 

Apart  from  social  workers,  who  are  brought  into  continual  contact  with 
families  of  the  workingmen  of  small  means,  there  are  few  people,  perhaps,  who 
are  intimately  acquainted  with  the  housing  problem  of  Dallas.  The  city  h:is 
grown  very  rapidly  within  the  last  decade,  and  has  enjoyed  a  go'den  era  of  pro< 
parity,  the  brilliancy  of  which  has  probably  blinded  the  people's  eyes  to  the 
forming  of  social  problems.  That  part  of  the  citizenship  which  has  the  influence 
and  nower  to  reduce  and  prevent  conditions  injurious  to  the  public  weal  has  had 
no  direct  means  of  finding  out  their  existence.  In  the  enjoyment  of  its  own 
prosperity  it  has  erroneously  assumed  that  everybody  else  was  prospering  too. 
Tt  rarely  has  occasion  to  vi  it  the  homes  of  laboring  people,  and.  in  the  absence 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  17 

of  personal  knowledge,  is  prone  to  regard  as  overdrawn  the  picture  of  squalor 
and  degradation  whrch  social  workers  describe. 

It  matters  little  how  intense  his  interest,  how  dominant  his  indignation  may 
be,  the  picture  of  housing  conditions  in  Dallas  which  the  experienced  social 
worker  portrays,  is  not  overdrawn.  It  can  not  be  overdrawn  for  the  simple 
reason  that  the  cogency  of  words  can  not  surpass  the  emphasis  of  facts. 

Conditions  of  housing  in  cities  of  Texas  were  on  several  occasions  discussed 
by  the  writer  with  Dr.  Charles  Stelzle.  the  eminent  social  worker  of  New  York 
City,  who  has  devoted  his  lifetime  to  the  study  and  solution  of  social  problems. 
Dr.  Stelzle  was  shown  conditions  prevalent  in  Dallas.  A  morning  spent  in  per- 
sonal investigation  here  convinced  him  that  New  York  City,  the  ''horrible  ex- 
ample" of  evil  conditions  of  housing,  "has  nothing  like  this."  And  in  .his  final 
word  to  Dallas  men  assembled  in  the  Opera  House  at  the  close  of  the  Men  and 
Religion  campaign,  h<e  described  a  housing  situation  which  he  personally  in- 
spected, and  characteried  it  as  viler  than  any  he  had  ever  seen  in  any  city  of 
America.  Let  us,  therefore,  at  the  outset  obtain  if  possible  a  panoramic  view 
of  -sections  of  Dallas  where  laboring  people  dwell,  with  the  purpose  of  evolving 
details  later. 

As  elsewhere  in  Texas,  the  mode  of  housing  working  people  in  Dallas  is  by 
use  of  the  detached  house  in  contradistinction  to  the  multiple  tenements  built  for 
the  accommodation  of  several  families  for  whom  separate  apartments  are  pro- 
vided. It  has  been  impracticable  to  ascertain  definitely  the  number  of  houses  in 
the  city  that  are  occupied  by  working  people  of  small  means,  but  from  statistics 
compiled  in  the  office  of  P.  K.  Baker,  commercial  superintendent  of  the  South- 
western Telephone  Company,  a  dependable  estimate  of  the  number  can  be  made. 
There  are  in  Dallas — or  were  at  the  time  Mr.  Baker's  census  was  taken — 19,412 
families,  of  which  7,635  live  in  houses  that  rent  for  $15  a  month  and  less.  There 
are  3.451  families  living  in  houses  in  Dallas  that  rent  for  less  than  $10  a  month. 
But  owing  to  a  small  number  of  vacant  houses,  and  more  especially  to  the  prac- 
tice of  working  people  of  small  means  of  living  in  one  house  as  separate  families, 
in  order  to  make  financial  ends  meet,  the  foregoing  figures  can  .not  be  said  to 
represent  accurately  the  number  of  such  .houses  in  the  city.  They  supply  a  re- 
liable approximation,  however,  and  it  may  therefore  be  said  that  there  are  about 
7,000  houses  in  the  city  that  are,  or  are  intended  for,  the  homes  of  working  peo- 
ple of  modest  means. 

THE  HOUSE  THAT  IS  THE  PROBLEM. 

Accurately,  however,  it  is  shown  by  this  census  that  18%  of  the  families 
of  Dallas  reside  in  houses  for  which  they  pay  a  rental  of  less  than  $10  a  i.i'..5iith. 
And,  parenthetically,  it  is  recalled  that  Dr.  Stelzle's  comment  upon  ho'*.  ..s  of 
this  kind  was:  "Take  it  from  me.  you  can't  get  much  of  a  house  in  Daiias  for 
less  than  $10  a  month." 

Add  to  this  18%  the  21%  of  families  who  reside  in  houses  for  which  they 
pay  a  rental  of  from  $10  to  $15  a  month,  and  the  importance  of  proper  housing 
to  the  entire  community  is  shown  by  the  numerical  scope  of  the  people  it  imme- 
diately affects,  nearly  40%  of  the  population  of  Dallas  living  in  houses  that  rent 
for  $15  a  month  and  less — the  type  of  house  that  presents  the  housing  problem 
in  Dallas. 

Speaking  generally,  not  with  one,  but  hundred^  of  examples  in  mind,  in  so 
far  as  physical  deficiencies  are  concerned,  the  housing  problem  of  Dallas  mani- 
fests itself  in  three  distinct  phases,  namely,  the  house  itself,  its  equipment,  and 
the  smallness  of  the  lot  upon  which  it  is  built.  As  time  goes  on,  conditions  that 
were  at  first  in  no  wise  satisfactory  are  made  worse  by  the  wearing  effects  of 
natural  deterioration.  About  the  only  differences  between  an  old  house  of  this 
type  and  a  new  one  is  that  the  latter  is  less  ramshackle  in  appearance. 

To  the  houce  itself,  those  who  have  undertaken  to  provide  accommodations 
for  the  laboring  people  have  accorded  little  attention.  It  is  planned  as  a  rule 
to  embrace  from  three  to  six  rooms,  the  architectural  principle  of  the  "shotgun" 
house  being  usually  followed.  This  "shotgun"  dwelling  is  the  bane  of  housing 
experts  throughout  the  world.  It  derives  its  name  from  the  single-barrel  appear- 
ance created  by  the  succession  of  rooms,  one  behind  the  other,  connected  by 
doors  that  are  cut  also  on  a  direct  line.  Sometimes  this  house  appears  as  a 


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20  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

"single-barrel  gun."  Again,  two  are  attached  by  a  partition  wall  and  made  to 
form  two  separate  apartments,  each  with  its  own  front  and  back  doors.  En- 
trance to  one  room  is  effected  only  by  passage  through  another,  thereby  destroy- 
ing whatever  element  of  privacy  a  small  house  may  retain. 

Windows  are  small  and  afford  no  more  light  than  ventilation.  Draughts 
can  not  be  closed  and  in  the  winter  months  colds  are  widely  present.  The 
houses  are  not  ceiled  and  the  wall  coverings  are  the  cheapest  of  paper  which  be- 
comes the  nesting  place  of  myriads  of  germs  as  it  begins  to  break  and  hang 
down  in  long,  dirty,  unsightly  folds.  Roofs  soon  begin  to  leak  and  are  but 
infrequently  properly  repaired.  The  house  itself — its  construction  'and  appear- 
ance— has  nothing  in  common  with  lofty  conceptions  of  a  home.  It  has  none  of 
the  picturesqueness  of  the  vine-clad  cottage,  the  log  cabin  nor  the  thatched  hut 
in  the  dell  which  the  poets  have  endeared  to  us  in  sentimental  rhyme.  It  is  a 
cold-blooded,  hard,  business  proposition  that  embraces  only  those  things  ele- 
mental in  its  renting  capacity — walls,  windows,  roofs,  doors.  With  the  forma- 
tion of  an  enclosure,  its  construction  ends.  There  is  no  evidence  of  effort  to 
give  a  .home-like  appearance.  No  attempt  is  shown  to  please  the  eye  nor  to 
relieve  the  dull  monotony  of  sameness  and  plainness.  The  impression  upper- 
most in  the  mind  of  him  who  views  it  is  that  the  building  was  erected  upon  the 
theory  that  the  cheaper  the  construction  and  the  greater  the  rent  that  may  be  col- 
lected for  occupancy,  the  better,  all  told,  is  the  investment.  And  in  dollars  and 
cents  this  is  undoubtedly  true;  but  in  social  economy  it  is  an  ever  continuing 
waste. 

Running  water  in  the  house  is  an  anomaly  in  this  realm  of  neg.ected  tenantry, 
and  that  laboring  man  may  count  himself  lucky  who  has  his  own  private  hydrant, 
though  it  be  remote  from  the  house  in  some  inconvenient  corner  of  the  yard.  As 
a  rule  he  has  to  share  his  water  supply  with  his  neighbor,  who,  to  be  sure,  is  not 
very  far  away,  and  frequently  he  is  merely  one  of  four,  and  even  five  consumers, 
who  obtain  their  water  from  a  common  pipe.  Some  there  are  who  are  without 
water  facilities  save  a  flowing  well  located  fifty  or  a  hundred  yards  away. 

Kitchen  sinks  are  another  rare  specimen,  of  sanitary  devices  found  in  work- 
ingmen's  homes,  and  the  immediate  consequence  of  this  deficiency  manifests 
itself  in  the  dishwater  and  soapsuds  that  surround  the  doorstep.  Like  the  Irish- 
man who  declined  to  purchase  a  trunk  to  put  his  clothes  in  because  he  refused 
to  appear  undressed  in  public,  the  typical  laborer's  house  has  no  need  of  closets. 
At  least,  it  doesn't  have  them.  Fireplaces  are  few.  screens  are  a  luxury  and 
sewerage  is  something  virtually  unheard  of.  Surface  outhouses  are  the  rule,  and 
one  of  the  most  deplorable  defects  of  the  whole  system  is  the  multiple  service 
they  are  required  to  perform.  There  are  frequent  instances  of  four  families  using 
one  closet— and  they  have  to  keep  that  locked  to  prevent  public  intrusion. 

BATHTUBS?     FOR   WHAT    PURPOSE? 

Then — the  bathtub.  Society  has  a  Pharisaical  antipathy  to  rubbing  elbows 
on  the  streets  with  people  of  uncouth  appearance  and  unclean  clothes.  And  yet 
society  rarely  thinks,  as  she  holds  herself  aloof,  that  these  people  equally  under- 
stand that  cleanliness  is  next  to  godliness;  that  they,  too,  realize  that  soap  'tn.l 
water  are  sanatory  agencies  contributing  to  moral  as  well  as  to  physical  health, 
and  that  all  they  ask  is  an  opportunity  to  apply  .to  themselves  the  same  sanitary 
regulations  and  media  that  are  the  handmaidens  of  the  elite.  Society  does  not 
think  this,  perhaps;  and  yet  it  is  true.  Anyone  who  has  seen  a  tired  mother 
carrying  bucket  after  bucket  of  water  from  an  outside  hydrant  to  a  large- sixe 
dishpan  in  the  kitchen  in  which  to  bathe  in  turn  each  of  her  half-dozen  children, 
will  not  pause  to  ponder  long  upon  the  rational  hypothesis  that  poor  people  as 
well  as  the  rich  like  to  be  clean.  They  want  to  be  clean — but  they  haven't  the 
chance.  If  one  speak  of  bathtubs  in  the  houses  of  laborers  he  subjects  himself 
to  the  supercilious  ridicule  of  those  who  pretend  to  expert  knowledge  of  the  way-- 
of  laborers.  "Bathtubs?"  some  one  will  smile,  indulgently.  "Why,  what  would 
they  do  with  bathtubs?  Store  coal  in  them?"  And  vet  social  workers  who  have 
spent  their  lives  among  the  poor  emphatically  assert  that  this  implication  is  as 
unfounded  as  it  is  ungenerous.  Nevertheless,  the  idea  prevails  pretty  widely 
that  such  would  be  the  use  to  which  many  of  the  laboring  people  would  put  their 
bathtubs  were  they  provided  with  them  by  the  owners  of  the  house-;  they  occupy. 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  21 

Whatever  may  be  the  reason  for  this  inadequacy  of  equipment,  it  is  a  defect  in 
housing  common  to  the  workingmen's  districts  of  all  Texas  cities.  In  truth  a 
bathtub  is  a  curiosity,  if  scarcity  endows  things  with  curiousness.  And.  this  in 
a  country  where  the  temperature  is  above  80  degrees  during  half  of  the  year. 

The  proximity  of  the  houses  one  to  another  is  one  of  the  most  striking  blem- 
ishes of  the  system  by  which  the  laboring  people  are  sheltered.  Two  houses 
on  a  thirty-foot  lot  are  by  no  means  a  rarity.  Stretches  of  small  dwellings,  sep- 
arated by  no  greater  distance  than  a  youth  can  jump — house  after  .house  of  the 
same  gloomy,  depressing  type,  having  the  same  paucity  of  equipment  and  lack 
of  fctness  for  human  habitation — are  common  enough  to  excite  only  trivial  com- 
ment. Thirty  of  such  structures  on  one  lot  hardly  large  enough  to  accommo- 
date comfortably  one-third  the  number;  others  in  smaller  but  no  less  dejected 
groups,  tucked  away  from  view  behind  large,  imposing  buildings;  single  houses, 
double  houses  and  detached  houaes  in  clusters  of  twos  and  threes — of  such  unat- 
tractive scenes  there  is  a  plenitude  in  Dallas,  and  most  of  them,  if  not  all,  are 
peopled  with  human  beings  who  aspire  to  something  better,  who  yearn  for 
decency,  but  who  lose  their  opportunity  for  elevating  themselves  in  the  cold, 
merciless  necessity  of  keeping  body  and  soul  together  by  the  blood-sweat  of 
their  brows.  They  want  better  things.  They  can  not  attain  them  without  help. 

And  yet  another  picture.  Here  is  a  row  of  detached  houses,  fifteen  or  twen- 
ty in  number,  facing  an  alley.  Less  than  ten  feet  of  space  separates  them  one 
from  another.  Not  a  modern  household  convenience  is  found  in  the  row.  Pass- 
ing around  the  structures  one  is  somewhat  surprised,  perhaps,  to  find  another 
row  of  the  same  type  of  construction  backed  u'p  against  the  first,  facing  in  the 
opposite  direction.  Clothes  lines  run  from  one  house  to  another  forming  a  veri- 
table network  of  wires  above  the  yard.  The  drying  linen  from  some  of  the  well- 
to-do  homes  of  Dallas  is  exposed  to  the  contaminating  influences  of  a  yard  that 
defies  description.  Little  outhouses  are  jammed  into  the  restricted  area  between 
the  dwellings,  emitting  nauseating  ocHr,  and  otherwise  evidencing  the  vilest  of 
sanitary  neglect.  Indescribable  stenches  come  from  vacant  houses,  the  late  oc- 
cupants of  which  have  not  yet  returned  from  the  cotton  fields.  Even  the  negroes 
revolt,  at  times,  at  the  multiple  use  of  unsanitary  closets,  and  following  their 
sordid  instincts,  break  the  insecure  locks  of  vacant  dwellings  and  convert  them 
into  reeking  quagmires  of  fecal  wastes. 

Negroes?  Yes.  for  the  most  part,  negroes  live  there.  But,  yonder,  bending 
over  a  washtub  amid  these  physical  surroundings,  is  a  white  woman,  emaciated 
and  worn  with  the  pangs  of  poverty  and  the  innumerable  cares  that  fall  to  the 
lot  of  "the  other  half."  Her  husband  was  a  laborer  whose  earning  power  yielded 
his  family  an  average  of  $2  a  day.  He  drank,  abused  her.  became  shiftless  and 
sought  to  impose  upon  his  feeble  helpmate  the  burden  of  the  family's  support. 
She  left  him,  and  taking  her  mother  and  child,  sought  refuge  in  this  inferno  of 
physical  and  moral  filth. 

"It's  the  best  I  can  do,  sir,  right  now,"  she  said,  wiping  the  soap  sucls  from 
her  eyes  with  the  corner  of  her  apron.  She  said  it  was  soap  suds.  She  was  too 
brave  to  cry  and  then  the  little  toddler  at  her  knees  would  look  in  round-eved 
amazement,  and  wonder,  in  the  anguish  of  his  little  mind,  what  the  matter  was. 

And  for  this  she  paid  $1.50  a  week.  The  house  she  lived  in  could  be  dupli- 
cated at  a  cost  of  less  than  $200.  Including  the  value  of  the  lot  actually  occu- 
pied by  and  assigned  to  the  house;  considering  insurance,  taxes  and  ail  other 
unavoidable  expenses,  a  generous-minded  calculation  of  the  investment  and  Us 
yield  would  reveal  a  revenue  pretty  close  to  25%. 

Take  another  section  of  the  town,  typical  of  such  conditions.  Here  is  a 
row  of  double  "shotgun"  houses  on  lots  of  thirty  feet.  They  are  occupied  by  the 
families  of  white  wage-earners  whose  revenue  runs  from  $10  to  $15  a  week. 
Back  yards  are  cluttered  with  trash.  The  premises  are  unsightly.  The  hou^e 
is  ramshackle — about  to  tumble  down,  one  involuntarily  observes.  A  double  out- 
house is  seen  in  the  rear,  of  the  unsanitary  type.  There  is  a  hydrant  on  the 
property  line.  Four  families  use  it  for  their  water  supply.  The  windows  are 
broken  and  unscreened.  The  roof  shows  to  the  eye  its  need  of  repair..  The 
whole  situation  is  repugnant  to  a  refined  sense.  And  for  it  all  two  families  pay 
$8  a  month — $4  a  side.  In  the  same  neighborhood  are  houses  of  the  same  type 


m 


24  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

i 

and  construction  that  bring  $10 — $5  a  family.     The  sum  of  $400  would  build  a 
vastly  superior  structure. 

These  scenes  are  merely  typical  of  conditions  that  prevail  in  those  sections 
of  Dallas  that  are  occupied  by  laboring  people.  They  can  be  seen  without 
trouble  by  those  who  are  interested  in  philanthropic  work.  They  exist — all  over 
town.  And  the  only  way  to  acquire  a  proper  understanding  of  what  the  laboring 
man  is  actually  confronted,  bound  and  stunted  by.  is  to  observe  for  one's  self. 
Personal  inspection  of  these  sections  will  vindicate  the  conservatism  of  these 
lines. 

PROMINENT  AND  IMMEDIATE  NEED 

OF  THE  CITY  IS  THOROUGH  CLEANING 

(From  Issue  of  Nov.   23.) 

A  survey  of  Dallas,  especially  an  intimate  inspection  of  districts  largely 
given  over  to  the  residences  of  working  people  of  small  means,  will  disclose 
in  striking  detail,  extensive  premises  that  need  primarily  a  good  cleaning.  Back 
yards,  and  sometimes  alleys,  are  frequently  cluttered  with  a  heterogeneous  mass 
of  unsightly  trash  and  viscous  filth  which  would  reveal,  under  qualitative  analysis, 
an  unlimited  variety  of  constituent  poisons.  The  gamut  of  noxious  agencies  is 
run  in  some  of  the  back  yards  of  Dallas,  from  typhoid  germs  conveyed  from  pro- 
lific cultures  of  manure  heaps  by  the  typhoid  fly,  to  vile  contagion  liberated  by 
the  disintegration  of  fecal  wastes  of  human  beings,  to  be  disseminated  through- 
out a  community  through  a  half  a  dozen  channels  of  infection.  How  long  condi- 
tions of  this  kind  have  prevailed  no  one  knows.  Their  cause  is  measureably 
hard  to  determine,  though  the  extent  of  their  prevalence  is  sufficient  to  stamp 
entire  communities  with  the  brand  of  unwholesome  characteristics.  This,  how- 
ever, is  not  a  condition  peculiar  to  Dallas;  it  is  merely  typical  of  situations  that 
are  found  in  other  cities  of  the  State  as  well. 

There  are  in  Dallas  five  sanitary  inspectors  whose  duty  it  is  to  inspect  prem- 
ises within  the  city  and  enforce  the  sanitary  code.  They  answer  all  calls  that  are 
made  upon  the  health  department,  make  regular  inspections  of  their  several  ter- 
ritories and  compel  where  they  can  strict  obedience  to  the  health  laws.  They 
are  diligent,  conscientious  workers  and  none  accuses  them  of  incompetency. 
When  asked  why,  in  the  face  of  inspection,  menacing  conditions  were  found  in 
the  city,  the  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Health  answered  in  a  twinkling: 

"We  haven't  got  men  enough." 

The  territory  given  to  each  inspector  is  considered  too  large  for  him  to 
cover.  It  has  been  estimated  that  sixty  days  would  be  required  for  inspectors 
to  examine  minutely  every  house  in  their  several  districts.  Premises  in  certain 
sections  of  the  city  seem  to  get  dirty  very  quickly.  Some  people  have  a  disposi- 
tion to  be  obstinate  merely  because  they  are  told  to  perform  a  certain  duty  im- 
posed upon  them  by  law.  The  obduracy  of  a  woman  who  was  recently  fined 
$100  twice  for  declining  to  obey  instructions  of  the  health  department  thoroughly 
illustrates  this  trait.  When  an  inspector  fincls  premises  requiring  cleaning,  he 
fixes  a  time  again -t  which  the  change  must  be.  made.  He  very  frequently  must 
return  several  times  before  his  orders  are  complied  with.  This  consumes  his 
time  and  interferes  with  the  efficiency  of  his  work  in  so  far  as  it  is  to  be  judged 
by  the  results  he  accomplishes. 

In  'connection  with  thi-?  topic  one  of  the  inspectors  of  Dallas  gave  the  writer 
01  a  rt-mari<an:e  comment  upon  the  opposition  lie  meets  in  trie  pursuit 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  25 

of  his  official  duties.  The  small  wage-earner,  the  negro  and  the  foreigner  give 
the  department  its  least  trouble.  "They  will  do  what  you  tell  them  to  do."  he 
said,  "but  you  have  to  keep  telling  them.  There  are  some  you  must  tell  every 
time,  but  they  obey.  All  I  am  called  upon  to  do  is  to  suggest  that  they  haven't 
$5  to  throw  away  on  a  Police  Court  fine.  It  is  the  real  estate  men  and  the  men 
who  own  a  great  deal  of  rental  property  that  give  us  the  most  trouble." 

NONRESIDENT  OWNERS  CAUSE  DELAY. 

It  is  further  learned  from  the  department  of  health  that  about  one-third 
of  its  "snags,"  or  hard  cases  to  get  results  from,  concern  property  that  is  owned 
by  nonresidents.  Many  nonresident  owners  of  rental  property  have  instructed 
their  agents  not  to  pay  for  the  driving  of  a  nail,  nor  to  assume  any  expense  no 
matter  how  trivial  without  their  written  orders.  For  this  reason  cold  weather 
frequently  kills  weeds  in  the  yards  of  such  property,  when  it  chances  to  be 
vacant,  before  the  health  department  is  enabled  to  get  in  touch  with  the  owner 
and  receive  his  sanction  to  the  assumption  of  the  slight  expense  involved. 

It  is  not  always  possible  to  hold  the  agent  responsible  for  the  condition  of 
the  property  over  which  he  has  charge.  He  sometimes  evades  action  upon  the 
plea  that  his  control  of  the  premises  extends  only  to  the  collection  of  rents. 
The  sanitary  inspectors  know  of  instances  of  agent's  taking  down  their  agency 
signs  from  property  when  the  department  sought  to  hold  them  responsible  for 
the  condition  of  the  premises.  "It  creates  a  difficult  situation,"  said  the  secre- 
tary, "when  we  want  to  have  certain  premises  cleaned  up  or  repaired  and  find 
trie  owner  is  in  Michigan."  • 

By  process  of  law,  the  health  department  has  authority  to  vacate  a  house 
that  is  deemed  too  unsanitary  for  human  habitation.  It  can  not  be  done  by  the 
order  of  the  inspectors,  nor  is  the  power  frequently  exercised.  There  is  no  in- 
stance on  record  of  such  action  by  Dallas  authorities  because  of  the  ramshackle 
condition  of  the  house,  nor  because  of  its  location  with  respect  to  other  houses, 
its  lack  of  sanitary  conveniences  nor  the  absence  of  other  elements  necessary  to 
its  proper  equipment  as  a  home.  It  must  be  a  public  menace.  Not  long  ago 
the  department's  attention  v/as  attracted  to  a  house  in  the  city  against  which  a 
vacating  order  was  contemplated  as  a  means  of  protecting  health.  The  yard 
around  the  house  had  been  filled,  but  the  area  beneath  the  building  was  allowed 
to  remain  at  its  original  level.  The  result  of  this  situation  was  to  cause  a  drain- 
age of  the  yard  to  the  area  under  the  house,  creating  conditions  unwholesome 
and  menacing  to  the  entire  community.  Had  the  level  of  the  house-space  not 
been  raised — and  there  was  some  difficulty  found  in  enforcing  the  department's 
order — it  was  planned  to  exercise  the  department's  vacating  power  through,  of 
course,  the  judicial  channels. 

The  city  carries  away  the  trash  that  collects  in  the  resident  districts,  but 
there  its  service  ends.  It  makes  no  disposal  of  garbage.  Tin  cans,  boxes  and 
trash  of  that  kind  which  accumulates  around  a  house  are  hauled  to  the  dumping 
grounds  without  charge,  the  city  having  six  trash  wagons  for  this  purpose;  brt 
the  garbage,  the  slops  of  the  kitchen,  the  refuse  from  the  table,  in  fact,  the  very 
things  in  which  disease  is  bred  when  decomposition  begins,  is  not  disposed  of  by 
the  city.  Each  house  owner  or  occupant  must  make  a  private  contract  for  the 
hauling  away  of  thi^;  and  the  drivers  of  the  trash  wagons  are  instructed  not  to 
take  even  a  pile  of  cans  that  contain  perchance  an  orange  skin  or  a  handful  of 
apple  peelings.  "Your  trash  pile  will  stay  on  the  sidewalk,"  said  a  sanitary  in- 
spector, "until  you  take  all  the  garbage  out  of  it." 

This  inspector  said  that  it  is  his  practice  to  tell  the  woman  of  the  house  that 
the  disposal  of  garbage  is  a  matter  for  her  solution,  admonishing  her,  however, 
pgainst  allowing  the  premises  to  become  filthy  and  instructing  her  not  to  throw 
the  kitchen  refuse  in  the  allev  or  in  the  street. 


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28  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

INADEQUATE  SYSTEM  OF  SEWERAGE 

COMPLICATES  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM 

(From  Issue   of  Nov.   24.) 

Unless  facilities  for  thorough  sanitation  be  provided  by  a  community,  there 
can  be  no  adequate  system  of  housing.  There  must  be  running  water,  drainage 
and  sewerage  to  preclude  the  arising  of  unsanitary  conditions  menacing  to  the 
health  of  the  community  and  shameful  to  its  ideals  of  civilization,  which,  with- 
out these  elementary  preventives,  are  unavoidable.  In  regard  to  none  of  these 
three  essentials  to  good  housing  does  the  city  of  Dallas  meet  fully  the  require- 
ments of  modern  standards.  It  is  especially  in  the  matter  of  sewerage  that  it 
has  been  chiefly  delinquent  and  least  considerate  of  the  welfare  of  its  people. 

There  are  very  few  sanitary  closets  connected  with  property  devoted  ex- 
clusively to  the  residence  of  laboring  people.  Where  this  kind  is  found  it  is 
frequently  discovered  that  its  use  is  the  common  right  of  more  than  one  family. 
The  evil  of  such  practice  is  self-evident,  viewed  either  in  a  moral  or  a  sanitary 
light.  And,  moreover,  when  sanitary  sewerage  has  been  employed  and  the  oc- 
cupants of  the  house  are  not  compelled  to  share  its  usage  with  others,  connec- 
Hon  is  seldom  made  indoors,  and  outside  location  invariably  magnifies  the  la- 
bor of  keeping  the  premises  clean.'  Many  of  the  sanitary  closets  of  this  type 
are  sanitary  only  in  the  technical  terminology  of  plumbing.  Fixtures  are  soon 
disarranged  by  careless  tenants  or,  perhaps,  wanton  vandals  among  the  ob- 
trusive public;  sewer  pipes  become  congested  with  trash  of  various  kinds  that 
is  thrown  into  them;  the  flushing  apparatus  loses  its  fittings;  the  door  falls  off 
or  is  torn  away,  and  in  a  very  short  time  that  which  would  have  originally 
passed  the  test  of  practical  hygiene  has  deteriorated  into  a  foul-smelling,  infec- 
tious source  of  annoyance  and  trouble.  The  same  conditions  prevail  more  or  less 
in  other  Texas  cities  as  will  appear  in  subsequent  articles  dealing  with  those 
cities^. 

However,  the  so-called  sanitary  sewer  is  largely  the  exception  among  the 
homes  of  laboring  people  in  Dallas.  The  poor  man's  sewer  is  the  surface  out- 
house— as  a  rule.  How  many  of  this  kind  there  are  in  Dallas  even  the  Health 
Department  doesn't  know.  Wherever  homes  of  small  wage-earners  are  found, 
surface  closets  are  very  likely  to  be  observed.  But  there  is  one  thing  which 
the  Health  Department  does  know,  and  knows  with  statistical  definiteness,  a 
card  index  system  being  employed  for  the  record  of  every  instance  that  comes 
under  its  observation.  It  is  this:  There  are  about  500  (the  secretary  did  not 
count  the  listed  cases,  merely  estimating  them)  surface  closets  in  Dallas  that 
are  maintained  in  flagrant  violation  of  law. 

In  other  words,  in  half  a  thousand  instances  in  Dallas  surface  closets  are 
used  when  the  property  is  within  fifty  feet  of  a  sewer. 

There  are  many  parts  of  the  city  that  are  without  sewer  mains.  The  only 
thing  that  can  be  done  in  this  territory  is  to  provide  for  the  use  of  surface 
closets  or  cesspools,  and  as  between  the  two  evils  the  former  is  considered  by 
sanitary  experts  the  less  dangerous  to  public  health.  But  in  those  areas  that 
are  equipped  with  sewer  mains,  under  the  law  of  the  city,  property 
owners  are  compelled  to  abandon  surface  outhouses  and  to  provide  sanitary 
closets  for  the  use  of  their  tenants.  There  are  on  record  instances  of  disobedi- 
ence to  this  law,  as  has  been  said,  to  the  number  of  about  500.  This,  too,  in 
the  face  of  the  clear  •  recitation  of  the  ordinance  and  the  attending  penalty  Tor 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  29 

its  infraction  of  a  fine  ranging  from  $16  to  $100,  each  day  of  continued  neglect 
constituting  a  separate  offense. 

HOW  THE  LAW  IS  ENFORCED. 

The  Department  of  Health  has  some  difficulty  in  securing  the  enforcement 
of  this  ordinance  against  property  owners.  Whenever  a  surface  closet  is  found 
within  fifty  feet  of  a  sewer  main  the  owner  of  the  property  is  immediately 
notified  by  formal  communication  from  the  Health  Department  and  is  ordered 
to  make  connection  with  the  sewer  within  thirty  days.  When  the  time  has 
passed  the  department  orders  the  premises  inspected,  and  if  the  order  has  not 
been  heeded  complaint  is  filed  against  the  proprietor  in  the  Corporation  Court. 
There  the  department's  troubles  'begin,  in  so  far  as  obtaining  immediate  results 
is  concerned.  Pleas  for  extension  of  time  are  frequently  allowed,  the  secre- 
tary of  the  board  informs  the  writer,  and  other  obstacles  that  are  common  to 
the  sluggish  processes  of  the  law  hinder  speedy  action.  Then,  too,  the  owner- 
ship of  such  property  by  non-resident  proprietors  interferes  in  a  measure  with 
the  accomplishment  of  quick  results.  Outside  owners  instruct  their  local 
agents  to  make  no  improvements  without  their  orders,  and  the  obtaining  of 
their  permission  is  sometimes  a  matter  of  protracted  time.  However,  the  rea- 
son is  not  especially  important.  The  fact  remains  that  there  are  approxi- 
mately 500  continuing  violations  of  the  city  ordinance  with  respect  to*  this  pro- 
vision of  the  health  code. 

Outhouses  of  this  kind  are  required  by  law  to  be  cleaned  once  every  sixty 
days  or  oftener,  as  conditions  may  demand.  The  work  is  done  under  contract 
with  the  city,  the  property  owner  or  the  tenant  paying  for  the  service  himself. 
Sometimes  conditions  require  weekly  cleansing.  There  are  other  instances  of 
its  being  a  matter  of  daily  routine.  Always,  after  cleaning,  the  sinks  are  dis- 
infected with  lime. 

The  physical  condition  of  some  of  these  surface  closets  is  very  bad  indeed. 
Tenants  complain  of  inadequate  cleaning.  Others  excuse  the  absence  of 
wooden  receptacles  by  expressing  the  wish  that  the  inspector  could  make  the 
"landlord  provide  them,  and  supplement  their  implied  complaint  with  a  recita- 
tion of  their  repeated  efforts  to  secure  proper  equipment.  But,  cleansed  every 
day  and  maintained  constantly  in  a  condition  as  sanitary  and  inoffensive  as  cir- 
cumstances will  permit,  this  type  of  closet  is  its  own  condemnation.  Modern 
housing  laws  do  not  recognize  its  right  to  exist,  and  they  condemn  it  wher- 
ever it  is  possible  to  abandon  it  for  the  satisfactory  type.  It  is  both  a  nuisance 
to  the  community  and  the  fertile  source  of  contagion  that  is  carried  hither 
r.nd  thither  throughout  a  city  by  the  common  houseflies  that  make  it  their 
nesting  and  feeding  place.  One  of  the  first  steps  toward  ideal  housing  condi- 
tions is  its  utter  annihilation. 

While  it  is  forbidden  by  law,  there  are,  nevertheless,  a  few  cesspools  in 
Dallas.  There  are  not  many,  but  a  few;  and,  according  to  statements  received 
at  the  Health  Department,  their  presence  is  ascertained  largely  through  the 
medium  of  a  neighborhood  rowr.  When  neighbors  fall  out,  they  sometimes  ren- 
der valuable  information  to  the  municipal  authorities.  Not  very  long  ago — 
just  a  matter  of  a  few  weeks — the  owner  of  a  piece  of  property  upon  which  a 
cesspool  had  been  sunk  was  ordered  to  fill  up  the  cavity.  The  job  was  poorly 
done,  and  inspectors  of  the  Health  Department,  in  an  almost  futile  effort  to 
rc-medy  a  bad  situation,  sunk  deep  holes  in  the  area  and  filled  them  with  power- 


O 

hH 

I— I 

O 

fe 

O 

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0, 
X 

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3i  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

ful  disinfectant.  It  was  merely  a  few  days  before  owners  of  neighboring  prop- 
erties were  threatening  to  sue  the  city  for  contaminating  their  wells.  If  it  took 
disinfectant  liquids  but  a  few  days  to  permeate  the  entire  community  with  their 
flavors,  what  must  have  been  the  possibilities  of  a  chemical  analysis  of  that 
water  during  its  months  of  exposure  to  a  neighboring  cesspool?  An  edifying 
contemplation,  unquestionably. 

Yes,  these  are  some  of  the  constituent  elements  of  Dallas'  housing  problem. 


OVERCROWDING  OF    OCCUPANTS  IS 

NOTICEABLE   EVIL   IN  LABORERS'  HOMES 

(From  Issue  of  Nov.   25.) 

The  exterior  of  the  laborer's  home — those  visible  barriers  to  his  broader  view 
of  life  which  have  arisen  directly  from  the  ignorance  and  inattention  of  society — 
has,  for  the  most  part,  been  the  topic  of  preceding  articles  on  the  general  subject 
of  housing  conditions  in  Dallas.  An  attempt  has  been  made  to  reveal  some  of 
the  injustices  that  society  imposes  upon  the  unskilled  workingman,  as  revealed 
by  the  construction,  location  and  equipment  of  the  house  in  which  he  lives.  It 
becomes  timely  now  to  open  the  door  to  his  home  anad  to  ascertain  some  of  the 
injustices  which  the  laborer  imposes  upon  himself,  not  of  his  own  volition  nor 
because  of  indifference  to  an  unwholesome  manner  .of  living,  but  because  the 
wage  he  earns  is  not  sufficient  to  meet  the  augmenting  expenses  of  rent,  fuel, 
sustenance  and  medical  attention — expenses  that  can  not  be  reduced  to  a  minimum 
standard  because  of  conditions  surrounding  him  of  which  he  can  not  gain  control. 
Ir.  the  last  analysis,  therefore,  the  misery  within  the  home,  which  arises  from 
''the  habits  of  the  tenants,"  may  be  traced  to  the  same  source  from  which  emanate 
the  evils  of  crowded  building  lots,  poor  sanitation  and  ramshackle,  or  unsanitary 
houses. 

A  workingman  whose  daily  wage  is  $1.50  finds  the  monthly  payment  of  $8  or 
$10  for  the  house  in.  which  his  family  lives  more  of  a  burden  than  the  natural 
vicissitudes  of  his  vocation  will  warrant  his  assuming.  His  employment  rarely 
has  the  advantage  of  stability.  He  has  work  one  week  and  may  be  unemployed 
the  next.  Nevertheless,  employed  or  unemployed,  his  family  must  live  and  grocery 
bills  and  rent,  physicians'  fees  and  medical  expenses  must  be  met.  Moreover,  it 
frequently  occurs  that  the  house  he  may  rent  for  $6  a  month  or  a  smaller  sum  is 
so  manifestly  unfit  for  the  habitation  of  his  family  that  he  is  willing  to  make 
whatever  sacrifice  he  justly  may  to  provide  a- better.  And,  shortsighted,  to  be 
sure,  he  will  rent  the  larger  house,  assume  the  bigger  obligation,  in  the  hope  that 
perhaps  things  will  work  out  satisfactorily  for  him  and  that  he  will  be  able  to 
meet  successfully  the  increased  expense  of  living.  He  makes  a  short  trial  of  the 
discouraging  task  and,  failing,  commits  the  inevitable  error  of  bringing  outsiders 
into  his  home  as  lodgers  and  boarders.  Then  follow  the  multifarious  results  of 
"the  lodger  evil,"  together  with  the  innumerable  consequences  injurious  to  physical 
health  of  the  practice  of  overcrowding. 

The  detrimental  effects  upon  the  health  and  the  degrading  results  to  the 
morals  of  men,  women  and  children  who  are  housed  together  in  one  room,  without 
sufficient  light  or  air  and  utterly  unrestricted  by  the  common  laws  of  modesty 
and  decency,  appear,  upon  a  moment's  reflection,  as  self-evident  conclusions.  Just 
a  word,  therefore,  will  be  used  to  give  the  gist  of  scientific  discoveries  with  respect 
to  this  phase  of  sociological  problems. 

OVERCROWDING  INCREASES   DEATH    RATE. 

It  is  an  incontrovertible  fact,  proven  time  and  again  by  careful  experiment, 
that  wherever  overcrowding  of  people  prevails  the  death  rate  increases.  In  his 
Statistics  of  Glasgow, :from  1871  to  1880,  Russell  has  shown  that  the  mortality  is 
largely  determined  by  the  number  of  occupants  of  a  room.  Where  the  average 
number  of  occupants  to  each  room  was  1.31,  the  general  mortality  was  21.7  per 
1,000;  when  the  average  was  2.05  the  mortality  increased  to  28.6  per  1,000.  Korosi 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  ,53 

cf  Budapest  has  proven  that  the  mortality  from  infectious  diseases  increases  with 
the  increasing  number  of  occupants  of  houses.  Where  the  occupants  do  not  exceed 
two  the  mortality  from  infectious  diseases  is  20  per  1,000;  3  to  5.  occupants,  the 
mortality  runs  to  29  per  1,000;  6  to  10  occupants,  the  mortality  reaches  32  per  1,000; 
and  where  there  are  more  than  ten  occupants  to  each  apartment  the  mortality  is 
advanced  to  79  per  1,000.  A  great  variety  of  statistics  could  be  given  in  support 
of  this  proposition,  were  it  not  patent  that  it  is  true. 

The  presence  of  the  tuberculosis  bacillus  is  necessary  to  consumption,  but  it 
is  very  frequently  harmless — in  fact,  some  say  entirely  so — when  it  does  not  find 
contributing  causes.  It  can  not  propagate  in  sterile  ground,  but  in  the  unhygienic 
conditions  to  which  many  of  the  laboring  people  are  subjected  it  finds  a  fertile 
culture.  And  one  of  the  most  potential  factors  in  the  propagation  of  consumption 
is  the  overcrowding  of  people  in  dwellings  and  the  consequent  foulness  of  the 
air.  Says  an  authority  on  this  subject:  "The  respiration  of  impure  air  directly 
debilitates  the  vital  powers,  enfeebles  the  nervous  system,  depresses  the  appetite, 
deranges  the  secretions  and  leads  to  the  retention  of  effete  matters  in  the  blood." 

The  moral  aspect  of  overcrowding  is  more  dreadful  than  the  physical, 
although,  perhaps,  its  moral  consequences  do  not  so  readily  manifest  themselves 
to  casual  observation.  Scientists  now  contend  that  bad  air  leads  to  intemperance. 
It  debilitates  the  nervous  system,  weakens  bodily  tissues  and  drives  the  victim 
to  indulgences  that  follow,  abnormal  cravings  for  stimulants.  When  the 
threshold  of  the  home  is  invaded,  the  privacy  of  the  family  is  immediately 
disturbed.  And  when  living  rooms  are  shared  with  outsiders  the  moral  evil  of 
overcrowding  assumes  its  most  insidious  form.  Delicacy  forbids  further  intrusion 
into  this  unwholesome  subject.  ,The  normal  man  and  woman  should  comprehend 
its  vicious  possibilities  at  a  glance.  The  evil  is  here,  as  the  ensuing  examples  will 
disclose. 

CROWDED  HOUSES  IN  DALLAS. 

The  writer  found  many  houses  in  the  city  containing  three  to  five  living 
rooms  that  were  affording  lodging  to  seven  to  twelve  persons.  The  rooms  were 
small,  poorly  ventilated  and  without  sanitary  conveniences.  A  "shotgun"  house 
of  three  rooms — bare  walls  with  doors  and  windows  cut  only  where  they  could 
not  be  avoided — was  one  of  the  first  dwellings  entered  on  the  survey  of  a  certain 
uortion  of  the  citv.  In  the  front  room  a  blind  baby  was  sleeping  under  a  dirty 
mosquito  bar.  Its  little  eyes  had  never  opened  to  the  sunlight.  The  mother 
came  into  the  room  in  answer  to  the  visitor's  call.  Disorder  and  dirt  were 
regnant.  One  of  the  three  rooms  was  a  kitchen.  In  the  other  two  lived  the 
father,  mother,  mother-in-law  and  three  children.  Six  persons  to  two  rooms  was 
the  sleeping  arrangement  there. 

Another  house  of  four  rooms  was  visited.  A  mother  and  three  children  were 
the  family  of  the  house.  They  occupied  one  room  which  was  the  occasional 
sleeping  place  of  the  father  when  he  returned  home.  One  room  was  a  kitchen. 
The  remaining  two  rooms  were  given  over  to  the  use  of  five  boarders,  three  in 
one  room,  two  in  another.  The  woman  paid  $10  a  month  rent  for  the  house.  Her 
boarders  paid  her  $4  a  week  for  meals  and  a  place  to  sleep.  The  rooms  were 
about  10x10  in  dimensions.  An  unsanitary  outhouse  and  a  hydrant  in  the  yard 
provided  the  premises  with  all  its.  sanitary  conveniences. 

In  another  house,  containing  nine  hooms,  three  families  comprising  seventeen 
people  were  living  in  eight  rooms.  A  lone  individual  occupied  the  other  room. 
An  unsanitary  outhouse  in  the  yard  was  made  to  serve  the  uses  of  eighteen 
persons.  Water  was  carried  into  the  house  from  a  hydrant  in  the  yard. 

Still  another  house  showed  twelve  persons  living  in  four  rooms,  most  of  them 
adults,  two  couples  of  whom  were  married.  Yet  another  was  found  to  contain  five 
rooms  and  seventeen  occupants.  The  kitchen  was  called  into  service  at  nigrht 
and  a  pallet  spread  for  a  man  to  sleep  upon.  It  was  said  to  be  somewhat  of  a 
choice  location  in  the  winter,  as  the  heat  of  the  stove  kept  the  room  warm 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  night.  In  the  morning  the  bedclothes  were 
rolled  up  to  make  way  for  the  breakfast  table. 

These  examples  could  be  cited  indefinitely.  There  are  dozens  of  them  that 
came  under  the  writer's  personal  observation.  Local  social  workers  know  of 
scores  of  them,  and  there  are,  perhaps,  even  hundreds  in  the  city.  The  recital 


34  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

will  be  brought  to  a  conclusion  with  one  more  illustration  of  the  extent  to  which 
overcrowding  is  permitted  in  Dallas,  the  last  example,  however,  being  doubtless 
representative  of  the  worst  conditions  the  city  reveals.  . 

Mr.  W.  G.  Leeman,  probation  officer,  accompanied  the  writer  to  a  house  not 
at  all  remote  from  the  business  section  of  the  city.  The  first  living  room  entered 
was  about  15  feet  wide  by  15  feet  long.  In  it  there  were  two  double  beds  and 
four  single  beds.  The  next  room  was  about  12  feet  wide  by  15  feet  long  and 
contained  five  single  beds.  Another  room  was  of  the  same  dimensions  and 
contained  four  single  beds.  Still  another  was  8  feet  w,ide  by  10  feet  long  and 
contained  two  single  beds.  Another  was  15x15  and  contained  four  single  beds. 
Still  another  was  10x12  and  contained  two  single  beds  and  one  cot.  The  last 
was  15x15  and  contained  three  double  beds  and  three  single  ones.  The  visitors 
were  rold  that  "eight  men  slept  in  that  room  last  night." 

Brief  computation  will  show  that  provisions  for  the  lodging  of  thirty-five 
persons  are  made  in  seven  rooms  of  this  house.  A  night's  lodging  costs  I5c,  2oc 
or  25c,  according  to  the  degrees  of  comfort  involved  in  the  varying  expense.  The 
owner  of  the  institution  fumigates  the  entire  premises  twice  a  week  and  takes 
extreme  caution,  where  it  can  be  taken,  to  prevent  disease.  And  this  instance, 
though  perhaps  a  bit  more  extreme  in  some  of  its  details,  is,  after  all,  merely 
typical  of  conditions  that  prevail  wadely  in  Dallas. 


WHOLESOME  MEANS  OF  RECREATION 

HELPS  TO  SOLVE  HOUSING  PROBLEM 

(From   Issue  of  Nov.   26.) 

The  tenant,  himself,  is  an  important  factor  of  the  housing  problem  of  Dallas, 
and  until  he  comes  into  possession  of  proper  knowledge  of  living,  through 
education  that  may  be  proffered  him  only  by  his  brothers  of  the  less  arduous 
walks  of  life,  the  problem  will  doubtless  continue  to  remain  unsolved.  The  tenant 
has  been  so  long  neglected,  he  has  been  so  long  dependent  almost  entirely  upon 
his  own  meager  resources,  that  he  has  learned  to  be  satisfied  in  a  measure  with 
that  which  surrounds  him.  although  an  inner  yearning  for  betterment  inspires  his 
serious  moods  to  loftier  ambitions  than  his  environment  would  suggest.  Generally 
speaking,  he  has  acquired  certain  habits  during  his  long  period  of  neglect,  that 
impose  serious  handicaps  upon  frequent  efforts  to  relieve  him. 

In  the  first  place,  the  laborer's  point  of  view  is  wrong.  This  is  not  his  fault, 
to  be  sure;  it  is  the  result  of  the  ceaseless  operation  upon  his  daily  life  of 
influences  that  are  beyond  his  control.  Society  has  permitted  false  standards  to 
arise  which  the  more  competent  of  society  repudiate  by  virtue  of  a  superior 
intellectual  view,  but  which,  to  the  laborer,  whose  entire  time  is  consumed  by 
the  difficult  task  of  making  a  living,  appear  as  inviolable  rules  of  life.  And  he 
pays  them  implicit  obedience.  Society  has  yielded  too  much  to  the  fallacious 
maxim  that  "money  makes  the  man,"  and  has  stooped  too  often  to  judge  of 
one's  worth  by  the  clothes  he  wears.  The  unskilled  workingman  regards  this  as 
a  rule  cf  society  and  his  very  ambition  to  follow  it  attests  an  aspiration  to  elevate 
himself  in  the  scale  of  living.  He  neglects  his  home  to  provide  presentable 
garments  for  himself  and  family.  He  disregards  the  graver  ne.eds  of  his  physical 
being  that  he  may  appear  well  in  public — meeting  the  false  standards  of  estimate 
v.hich  he  thinks  society  judges  him  by.  In  consequence,  the  surplus  of  his 
meager  wage — if  there  be  a  surplus — goes  not  into  his  home,  but  upon  his  back. 
The  home  is  more  or  less  of  a  secondary  consideration  with  him  and  his  family. 
At  the  same  time,  he  wants  a  better  home.  That  proposition  is  hardly  open 
to  controversy  among  social  workers  who  have  intimate  knowledge  of  social 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  35 

problems.  The  laborer's  inability  to  assist  himself  to  more  advantage  in  the 
procuring  of  a  better  home  comes,  therefore,  not  from  an  inherent  lack  of 
ambition,  but  from  an  innate  sentiment  of  greater  potency  than  his  aspiration 
for  a  superior  home,  which  impels  him  in  his  struggle  to  meet,  not  the  right,  but 
the  false  standards  of  society. 

HOME  NOT  A  PLEASURE  PLACE. 

The  result  of  this  is  that  the  laborer's  home  degenerates  too  often  into  merely 
a  place  where  eating  and  sleeping  are  provided.  His  social  intercourse  is  sought 
elsewhere.  Arrayed  in  her  best  gowns,  his  daughter  seeks  her  companions  on 
streets,  at  the  dance  halls  or  wherever  occasion  may  bring  them  together.  It  is 
remote  from  her  mind  to  invite  her  friends  to  her  home.  She  has  no  home. 
Conditions  that  will  be  found  to  exist  there  do  not  comport  with  the  appearance 
she  makes  in  her  Sunday  finery.  She  is  ashamed  of  her  hearthstone.  She  meets 
her  escort  at  some 'appointed  place  on  the  plea  that  father  would  object  to  the 
evening's  program  were  he  to  be  aware  of  it;  she  leaves  him  at'  the  corner,  two 
blocks  from  her  home,  and  runs  alone  to  her  door,  on  the  same  plea.  Her  pride, 
which  in  a  measure  is  laudable,  does  not,  however,  justify  the  risk  she  assumes. 
And  in  this,  if  in  nothing  else,  is  shown  the  need  of  wide  expansion  of  the  social 
center  idea  during  the  process  of  evolving  a  more  substantial  and  satisfying 
system  of  homes  for  the  poorer  working  people. 

The  home  of  the  laboring  man  is  not  the  site  of  his  pleasure-seeking.  He 
and  his  family  go  elsewhere  for  the  amusement  and  recreation  which  they,  in 
common  with  all  human  beings,  demand  and  must  have  for  the  living  of  normal, 
well-regulated  and  profitable  lives.  In  assisting  him  to  find  the  proper  kind  of 
tecreation,  social  and  charitable  institutions  of  Dallas  are  doing  a  beneficial 
service,  but  their  activities  alone  are  not  sufficient  to  meet  present  exigencies 
without  the  aid  of  a  larger  part  of  society.  As  it  is,  they  have  improved  the 
condition  of  the  workingman  and  his  family  immeasureably,  and  especially  have 
they  made  success  in  solving  the  problems  of  social  intercourse  during  the 
summer  months.  For  an  example,  the  public  playgrounds  in  one  part  of  Dallas 
were  patronized  by  more  than  11,000  persons  during  one  month  of  the  late 
summer.  But  with  the  coming  of  colder  weather  and  its  attendant  disadvantages, 
the  majority  of  those  people  who  were  well  entertained  during  the  summer 
either  do  without  their  moiety  of  pleasure  or  seek  it  elsewhere.  The  latter 
conclusion  is  perhaps  the  more  correct. 

When  the  weather  permits  the  carrying  out  of  social  programs  such  as  the 
social  institutions  of  Dallas  provide,  the  laborers  and  their  families  do  not  want 
tor  wholesome  recreation  and  amusement.  Dramatic  clubs  have  been  organized, 
in  which  the  patrons  and  participants  manifest  active  interest.  Short  dramas 
and  sketches  are  staged  at  frequent  intervals,  and  sometimes  trips  are  made  to 
neighboring  towns  and  plays  presented  to  strange  audiences  with  abundant 
success.  Picture  shows  are  operated  at  stated  intervals  during  the  week,  and 
social  clubs,  composed  of  the  younger  set,  give  lawn  parties,  dances,  hay  rides, 
lox  suppers,  parlor  socials  and  such  other  entertainments  that  are  capable  of 
> '.elding  innocent  enjoyment.  The  coming  of  winter  has  largely  put  a  stop  to 
this  means  of  amusement  merely  because  the  people  have  no  place  to  meet  for 
its  continuance. 

Hence  the  great  need  of  social  center  work  during  the  development  of 
adequate  housing  systems.  It  is  inclispcnsible,  all  social  workers  say,  and  they 


36  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

base  their  conclusions  upon  careful  thought  and  wide  experience.  These  people 
must  be  amused.  They  must  have  innocent  recreation.  The  ultimate  idea  is  to 
make  of  each  laborer's  home  the  place  of  his  chief  delight,  the  rendezvous  of  his 
friends  and  the  scene  of  his  daughter's  courtship.  This  can  not  be  attained  at 
once.  Its  evolution  is  gradual,  and  during  its  progress  innocent  substitutes  must 
be  provided  for  the  streets  and  the  unregulated  dance  halls.  Otherwise,  following 
the  natural  bent  of  humanity — who  are  nothing  if  not  gregarious — they  will  seek 
their  pleasures  wherever  opportunity  offers  enticements. 


TENANT,  HIMSELF,  NEEDS  EDUCATION 

IN  PROPER  PRINCIPLES  OF  HOUSING 

(From  Issue  of  Nov.  27.) 

A  large  percentage  of  the  laboring  people  of  Dallas  may  be  properly  regarded 
as  a  transient  population.  They  are  here  today  and  gone  tomorrow,  calling  nu 
place  their  home,  ever  seeking  a  change  of  scene  in  their  fatuous  pursuit  of  that 
will-o'-the-wisp  which  they  call  their  fortunes.  Many  of  them  are  simply  lovers 
of  adventure.  They  love  to  roam  for  the  reason  that  the  wanderlust  is  strong 
upon  them.  Moving  becomes  a  habit.  Others  there  are  who  move  from  necessity, 
and  in  the  final  analysis  it  is  found  that  this  type  perceive  the  necessity  of  change 
in  the  utter  inadequacy  of  the  homes  they  are  required  to  live  in  while  here. 
After  everything  has  been  said  and  causative  agencies  have  been  resolved  into 
their  several  parts,  the  whole  situation  is  reduced  to  a  housing  proposition.  Prone 
to  wander  in  the  first  instance,  there  is  absolutely  no  way  of  overcoming  this 
roving  spirit  without  centering  affection  and  interest  in  a  place  that  may  be 
called  home. 

Referring  to  a  large  manufacturer  of  Texas,  Secretary  Babcock  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  recently  wrote: 

"He  has  told  me  that  the  greatest  difficulty  in  the  way  of  manufacturing 
cotton  in  the  South  is  the  labor  situation,  and  the  reasons  that  mills  have 
developed  in  the  eastern  section  of  the  South  is  because  labor  conditions  were 
good.  He  knows,  and  I  know,  that  they  are  not  good  in  Dallas;  that  he  has  to 
import  every  one  of  his  laboring  people,  and  just  as  soon  as  he  gets  them  properly 
broken  in  to  the  work,  they  see  the  golden  visions  of  prosperity  in  land  in  other 
sections  of  Texas  and  away  they  go.  I  do  feel  that  if  there  could  be  development 
in  Dallas  along  the  lines  we  have  started;  for  instance,  in  playgrounds  at  Trinity 
Park  and  other  things  of  a  similar  nature  which  would  help  make  life  attractive 
to  the  laboring  people  *  *  *  we  could,  in  part,  solve  the  labor  problem." 

There,  in  a  nutshell,  is  the  answer.  Life  must  be  made  attractive  to  these 
people  to  hold  them  here,  to  cultivate  in  them  a  commendable  pride  of  home,  to 
develop  in  them  the  qualifications  of  good  citizenship,  and  to  make  of  them 
contributors  to,  as  well  as  sharers  in,  the  general  advancement  and  benefits  of 
society.  Motives  of  self-interest  and  altruistic  sentiment  alike  demand  this  much. 
Their  roving  disposition  manifests  itself  in  their  movement  about  the  city  as  well 
as  in  their  departure  from  it.  They  move  into  a  house  which  did  not  please  them 
at  first,  and  which  soon  displeases  them  to  the  point  of  irritation.  They  are  not 
disposed  to  be  considerate  of  that  for  which  they  have  contempt,  and, 
consequently,  they  are  sometimes  hard  tenants  and  prone  to  abuse  the  property 
upon  which  they  reside.  Their  homes  have  not  been  equipped  with  sanitary 
conveniences,  and  soon  they  look  upon  such  expenditures  for  which  they,  not  the 
landlord,  must  pay  in  higher  rents,  and,  therefore,  they  do  not  demand  them. 
They  want  to  be  clean,  they  want  to  bathe,  but  they  can  not  afford  to  pay  an 
increased  rental  for  the  privilege  of  a  bathtub.  They  use  the  family  dishpan  or 
patronize  the  public  lyaths,  where  they  can  be  had.  And  their  patronage  of  the 
public  baths  is  a  strong  argument  against  the  disingenuous  comment  that  laboring 
people  wouldn't  know  what  to  do  with  bathtubs  if  they  had  them.  A  few  figures 
concerning  their  use  of  public  baths  in  Dallas  might  be  of  importance  in 
connection  with  this  discussion. 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  37 

USE   OF  PUBLIC   BATHS. 

During  July  of  this  year  11,069  persons  attended  the  playgrounds  at  Trinity 
Park.  Of  these,  1,416  enjoyed  the  baths  obtainable  there  without  charge.  In 
August  the  attendance  reached  11,469  persons.  Twenty-two  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  of  'these  bathed  at  the  playground  bathhouse.  The  September 
attendance  was  10,168,  and  of  these  1,294  used  the  baths.  The  coming  of  colder 
weather  reduced  the  October  attendance  to  6,163  and  brought  the  total  number 
of  baths  down  to  728.  These  figures  might  be  very  much  larger  if  public  bathing 
facilities  were  more  adequate.  And  yet  people  need  recreation  and  amusement 
and  baths,  too,  just  as  much  in  October  as  they  do  in  midsummer.  The 
amusements  they  seek  elsewhere;  the  baths  they  procure  at  home  in  the  family 
dishpan  or  go  without.  Nevertheless,  the  fact  that  the  average  daily  number  of 
baths  taken  at  the  playgrounds  has  gone  close  to  100  in  August,  despite  the 
inconvenience  of  walking  a  considerable  distance  and  carrying  clean  linen  and 
underwear  through  the  streets  and  returning  with  the  soiled,  makes  a  fairly 
forcible  argument  that  these  people  want  to  bathe  and  are  kept  from  frequent 
use  of  water  only  by  the  absence  of  bathing  facilities  or  their  remoteness. 

Again,  inadequate  inspection  of  premises  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing 
sanitary  restrictions  has  made  them  careless  of  conditions  that  surround  them. 

Many  of  the  houses  sit  high  from  the  ground  upon  stilts,  but  for  the  most 
part  they  are  built  close  to  the  ground,  with  barely  space  enough  between  the 
foundation  beam  and  the  earth  for  a  small  child  to  crawl  through.  But  no 
matter  what  the  height  from  the  ground,  few  of  the  houses  have  their  nether 
spaces  inclosed,  neither  boarding  nor  latticework  being  used.  Now,  beneath  the 
house  only  the  children  and  the  dogs  go.  Consequently,  that  part  of  the  premises 
affords  a  good  out-of-the-way  place  for  the  concealment  of  the  trash  that 
accumulates  around  the  house.  And  under  the  house  it  usually  goes,  being  swept 
there  by  the  housewife  in  an  effort  to  make  the  surroundings  present  a  fairly 
decent  appearance. 

The  constant  moving  from  house  to  house  does  not,  as  some  would  think, 
bring  about  efforts  on  the  part  of  landlords  or  the  city  to  fumigate  and  disinfect 
the  premises  after  the  departure  of  each  family.  On  the  contrary,  the  only 
disinfecting  that  is  done  by  the  city  concerns  premises  where  cases  of  contagion., 
diseases  have  prevailed.  Sometimes  newcomers,  especially  people  from  the 
North,  according  to  the  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Health,  apply  to  the  city  for  a 
means  of  disinfecting  their  newly-acquired  residences.  This  request  is  always 
complied  with,  but  only  where  the  more  virulent  of  contagious  diseases  have 
prevailed  does  the  city  of  its  own  volition  take  such  precaution  against  the 
communication  of  infection.  Consequently,  time  and  time  again,  according^  to 
dependable  information,  a  family  will  move  out  with  the  corpse  of  a  consumptive, 
another  family  will  move  in — and  no  measures  will  be  taken  to  prevent  the 
communication  of  tuberculosis  to  the  incoming  residents.  Tenants,  as  a  rule,  are 
not  careful  in  expectoration,  and  consumptives,  themselves,  do  not  always  take 
proper  precautions  against  infecting  others.  This  is  noticeably  true  where  the 
premises  are  of  such  nature  as  not  to  inspire  respect,  and  the  idea  that  is 
frequently  prevalent,  that  the  occupants  will  be  there  but  for  a  short  while, 
anyway,  often  leads  to  an  exaggeration  of  the  evil  of  spitting. 

BUILDINGS  OF  LASTING  INFECTION. 

That  houses  may  become  permanently  infected  by  the  tubercle  bacilli  is 
thoroughly  appreciated  by  the  medical  profession  and  is  evidenced  by  the 
repetition  of  cases  of  tuberculosis  in  the  same  environment.  Sputum  that  is 
expectorated  upon  the  floors  or  walls  of  a  house  quicklv  dries  and  is  converted 
into  dust  to  liberate  the  consumptive  germs  and  pervade  the  entire  room  with 
their  contagion.  Dust  of  this  kind,  it  is  authoritatively  written,  remains  virulent 
for  months,  and  even  years,  when  it  is  deposited  in  rooms  _  that  ^  are  not 
thoroughly  renovated  and  disinfected  when  the  _ presence  of  infection  first 
manifests  itself.  And  when  it  is  of  long  accumulation  it  becomes  impossibly  to 
render  the  infection  harmless  by  anything  short  of  destroying  the  house  by  fire. 

Infectious  matter  is  distributed  bv  frequent  change  of  residence  and  brings 
about  spread  of  the  disease.  As  victims  grow  weaker  from  the  ravages  of  their 
plague,  their  earning  power  becomes  more  reduced  and  they  gradually  descend 


40  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

to  the  lowest  scale  of  housing,  as  the  worst  conditions  are  usually  found  in  the 
cheapest  houses.  And  the  constant  depositing  of  infectious  matter  brings  about 
eventually  the  infected  house,  concerning  which  Dr.  Arthur  R.  Guerard,  assistant 
bacteriologist  of  New  York,  makes  this  startling  statement: 

"The  conclusions  arrived  at  by  these  competent  observers  tally  exactly  with 
those  reached  by  the  writer,  namely,  that  tuberculosis  is  not  uniformly  diffused 
throughout  a  community,  not  even  in  those  localities  where  the  disease  is  most 
prevalent,  but  is  confined  within  narrow  limits,  as  in  certain  streets  and  within 
the  walls  of  certain  houses." 

It  would  appear,  then,  that  the  tenant,  as  well  as  the  landlord  and  society, 
needs  educational  assistance  in  the  process  of  evolving  desirable  conditions  oi 
housing. 

GALVESTON'S  CONSPICUOUS  HOUSING 

PROBLEM  IS  CROWDING  OF  DWELLINGS 

(From  Issue  of  Nov.   28.) 

Texans  unite  in  extending  to  Gaiveston  the  compliment  of  their  admiration. 
No  city  of  modern  times  has  been  subjected  to  tests  of  courage  and  energy  more 
heroic,  nor,  in  the  face  of  almost  insurmountable  obstacles,  has  the  success  of 
any  been  more  triumphant. 

Gaiveston,  as  the  world  knows,  has  risen  "on  stepping-stones  of  its  dead  self 
to  higher  things,"  and  gazing  through  the  perspective  of  the  past  it  perceives  few 
mistakes  to  deplore  in  its  dogged  battle  against  the  stupendous  odds  of  Fate. 
The  town  has  been  re-made  in  a  decade,  and  in  its  reconstruction  many  of  the 
disadvantages  of  the  old  Gaiveston  have  been  submerged  in  the  excellence  of  the 
new.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  in  the  relics  of  the  old  town  that  modern  Gaiveston 
finds  its  housing  problem. 

When  the  town  of  Gaiveston  was  laid  out  its  builders  planned  wisely.  It 
is  regularly  platted  into  squares,  except  along  the  boundaries  of  the  city  where 
the  irregular  contour  of  the  land  interferes  with  the  regularity  pi  the  original 
scale.  A  park  system  has  been  outlined  with  arithmetical  precision  throughout 
the  incorporated  area. 

A  system  of  alleys  cuts  the  city  into  half  blocks.  Only  here  and  there  at 
infrequent  intervals  has  the  continuity  of  this  system  been  broken.  The  effort, 
in  the  planning  of  the  town,  manifestly  was  to  provide  an  amplitude  of  thorough- 
fares, not  alone  to  expedite  the  movement  of  traffic  and  to  facilitate  the  exercise 
of  protective  means  against  fire,  but  also  to  supply  adequate  air  passages  for 
blocks  of  buildings  which,  in  the  nature  of  things,  could  be  expected  to  develop  in 
the  midst  of  a  thriving  seaport  town. 

Adhering  to  the  original  platting  of  the  city  there  should  never  have  devel- 
oped the  condition  of  house-crowding  which  upon  investigation  is  found  'to  be 
the  striking  manifestation  of  an  existing  housing  problem  in  Gaiveston.  As  the 
city  grew  land  values  appreciated  naturally.  In  the  business  district,  property  at- 
tained the  zenith  of  its  flight  and  to  considerable  extent  values  became  variable 
quantities  controlled  by  proximity  to  the  centers  of  commercial  activity.  As  the 
business  section  augmented  neighboring  residential  properties  enjoyed  increased 
values,  and  the  area  set  apart  originally  by  common  usage  for  the  earlier  habi- 
tation of  the  island,  acquired  values  that  compelled  close  construction  of  build- 
ings to  realize  reasonable  and  proportionate  rentals. 

Moreover,  in  the  formative  period  of  Galveston's  building,  the  city  was  with- 
out adequate  streets  and  thoroughfares.  The  natural  formation  of  the  site — 
sandy  and  unstable — made  the  movement  of  man  and  beast  more  or  less  diffi- 
cult wherever  paving  or  grading  was  scant.  The  impulse  of  the  people,  there- 
fore, was  to  erect  their  dwellings  as  near  to  the  center  of  business  as  controlling 
circumstances  would  permit.  Coupled  with  the  agency  of  appreciating  values  in 
the  natural  course  of  the  city's  development,  this  influence  wrought  eventually 
a  housing  condition  peculiar  in  Texas  to  Gaiveston  alone,  in  that  the  noticeable 
deficiency  in  its  housing  scheme — the  close  proximity  one  to  another  of  its  dwell- 
ings— is  a  condition  not  disclosed  by  particular  sections  of  the  town,  but  is 
characteristic  of  the  entire  city.  In  the  sections  occupied  by  laboring  people. 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  41 

every  inch  of  available  space,  figuratively  speaking,  which  a  lot  affords  has  been 
utilized.  The  same  is  true  of  districts  wherein  are  found  the  homes  of  the  rich. 
Leaving  the  business  section  on  a  tour  of  inspection,  it  matters  not  in  what 
direction  one  proceeds,  his  first  glimpse  of  residences  will  almost  invariably  re- 
veal this  condition  of  house  congestion.  Looking  for  deficiencies  in  the  housing- 
system,  he(  will  probably  seek  first  the  sections  of  town  occupied  by  the  poorer 
working  people,  where,  experience  has  taught,  are  to  be  found  undesirable  con- 
ditions of  housing  in  their  most  aggravated  form.  Passing  the  centers  of  the 
business  sections  he  encounters  here  and  there  a  group  of  shanties  hemmed  in 
between  commercial  structures  of  some  pretension  to  size  and  elegance,  border 
ing  the  business  area.  Beyond  the  outskirts  of  the  business  district  the  tenant 
houses  begin.  The  crowded  aspect  of  the  section  is  its  remarkable  characteristic. 
Here  is  a  ninety-foot  lot  occupied  by  four  small  houses.  A  rapid  mental  calcu- 
lation apportions  the  lot  into  four  parts,  each  about  twenty-two  feet  wide.  If 
any  space  has  been  left  between  the  buildings  for  air  purposes  or  to  facilitate 
the  repair  of  one  without  tearing  down  the  other,  the  spectator  begins  to  won- 
der where  the  occupants  found  room  in  one  of  the  houses  for  the  piano  from 
which  are  issuing  the  plaintive  strains  of  a  popular  love  song. 

CAN  CONVERSE  FROM  PORCH  TO  PORCH. 

The  observer  turns  the  corner  and  looks  into  the  fronts  of  a  battery  of  small 
houses,  glowering  like  the  muzzles  of  the  shotguns  for  which  they  have  been 
appropriately  named.  It  is  a  warm,  pleasant  morning  and  busy  housewives  are 
observed  about  their  daily  routine  of  cleaning  up.  Two,  standing  upon  small 
squares  of  wood-work  which  they  would  designate  as  their  respective  front 
porches,  are  conversing  across  the  intervening  space.  The  elderly  woman  must 
be  occupying  herself  with  a  disquisition  upon  the  merits  of  a  brand-new  broom 
which  she  fondles  rather  affectionately  as  she  speaks  of  it  to  her  youthful  neigh- 
bor. The  latter  is  interested  and  smiles  appreciatingly  as  her  friend  talks.  She 
holds  out  her  hand  with  a  gesture,  inviting  closer  inspection.  Her  neighbor 
grasps  the  handle  about  the  middle  part  and  hands  the  broom  to  the  woman  on 
the  other  gallery  without  stretching  her  arms  to  their  fullest  length.  That's  how 
close  the  houses  are  in  that  neighborhood. 

Farther  down  the  street  a  row  of  negro  shacks  loom  dull  and  dark  from  a  re- 
cess formed  by  two  larger  dwellings.  Apparently,  nothing  but  a  partition  wall 
divides  them  one  from  the  other.  Their  fronts  are  flush  to  the  sidewalk.  A 
cmwd  of  pickaninnies  are  chasing  each  other  along  the  street  and  at  the  scolding 
call  of  some  black  mammy  in  the  rear  disappear  down  a  narrow  alley  in  response. 
The  quest;on  how  to  reach  the  back  yard,  if  there  be  a  back  yard,  is  immediately 
solved.  The  side  entrance  had  not  been  noticed  and  would  not  have  been  but 
for  the  course  of  the  children.  It  was  decidedly  no  place  for  a  fat  man  to  venture. 

Block  after  block  was  traversed.  Block  after  block  was  crowded  with  houses. 
In  the  majority  of  instances  the  houses  were  built  in  groups  of  two,  three,  four, 
five  and  sometimes  more.  In  such  cases  the  same  architectural  design  charac- 
terized the  groups,  one  plan  being  sufficient  for  all.  Between  each  two  of  this 
type  of  house  the  space  invariably  was  virtually  nil.  The  thought  was  suggested 
that  perhaps  identity  of  plan  was  in  some  way  responsible  for  the  crowding. 
But  that  thought  vanished  with  further  revelations.  Here  was  a  row  of  large 
houses.  Each  embodied  a  distinct  architectural  scheme.  Some  were  two-story 
structures;  others  were  large  cottages.  No  two  of  them  were  separated  by  space 
sufficiently  wide  to  permit  the  passage  of  a  horse  and  rider. 

LARGE  HOUSES  CLOSE  TOGETHER. 

Here  was  a  block  facing  one  of  the  car  lines  of  the  city.  The  houses  were 
constructed  in  groups  of  similar  designs.  At  the  corner  stood  two  two-story 
structures.  Between  them  there  was  barely  room  for  a  fence.  Adjoining  were 
two  cottages,  then  came  a  group  of  three.  Beyond  was  a  row  of  three  two-story 
dwellings.  Adjoining  was  a  large  house  of  individual  planning.  Beyond  it  were 
three  others  of  different  architecture,  large  and  in  themselves  roomy  and  ap- 
parently comfortable.  Now  pause  to  calculate  a  moment.  The  block  measured 
300  feet  in  length.  It  contained  fourteen  houses.  A  little  bit  more  than  twenty- 


m 


riiiflli 


44  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

one  feet  to  the  house  was  the  average  ground  base.     Shallow  yards,  cut  off  by 
picket  fences,  separated  the  dwellings  from  the  sidewalk. 

The  increasing  frequency  of  small  flower  beds  indicated  that  the  survey  was 
working  back  to  the  residential  districts  occupied  by  the  more  affluent  of  Galves- 
ton's  citizens.  A  corner  was  turned  and  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach  handsome 
dwellings  were  discerned.  Palm  gardens  there  were  in  abundance.  Oleanders 
bloomed  in  the  warmth  of  glorious  Indian  summer.  Here  was  a  stately  mansion 
surrounded  by  well-kept  lawns  and  rose-beds.  Adjoining  was  another  handsome 
residence.  Then  came  the  shock. 

Massed  together  were  a  series  of  four  large,  pretentious  houses.  Of  indi- 
vidual structure  and  having  each  its  attractive  lawn  and  flower  bed  in  front,  they 
all  bore  the  outward  aspect  of  homes — the  physical  embodiment  of  happy  life 
within — save  for  the  manifest  absence  of  privacy.  Here  in  the  heart  of  the  resi- 
dential section  of  the  wealthy,  as  in  the  cottages  of  the  dock-workers  and  the 
poor,  the  same  proximity  of  houses  was  found.  And  while  the  wives  of  neigh- 
boring laborers  could  swap  yarns  and  brooms  from  their  galleries,  the  maids  and 
butlers  of  the  rich  could  flirt,  pass  amorous  notes,  yea — if  they  could  avoid  de- 
tection— and  even  press  an  osculatory  caress  upon  tender  lips  as  they  leaned 
slightly  out  of  upstairs  windows  to  court  across  the  narrow  chasm  that  divided 
them. 

On  this  block  and  on  that,  the  same  condition  prevails.  In  some  instances 
but  a  few  inches  of  space  separates  the  structures,  and  an  unspoken  and  at  the 
same  time  an  unanswered  question  suggests  itself:  How  did  the  carpenters  nail 
up  the  adjoining  walls?  To  an  untechnical  mind  no  rational  explanation  occurs 

This  is  Galveston's  conspicuous  housing  problem.  The  crowding  of  houses 
prevails  throughout  the  built-up'  sections  of  the  town  without  regard  to  the  social 
fortunes  of  the  people  who  occupy  them.  The  mere  condition  of  crowding  is 
equally  apparent  on  Broadway  and  along  the  streets  upon  which  the  dock-work- 
ers have  erected  their  homes.  Houses  have  been  constructed  without  restric- 
tions imposed  by  municipal  law.  The  people  have  not  thought,  perhaps,  of  the 
evils  consequent  upon  congestion  of  their  living  territory,  and  they  have  erected 
their  homes  neglectful  of  a  principle  of  housing  upon  which  not  alone  depends 
protection  against  fire  and  other  dangers,  but  from  which  comes  also  that  greatest 
attribute  of  home  life,  so  indispensible  to  proper  conditions  of  living  and  the 
rearing  of  children — privacy — aloofness  from  the  outside  world  once  the  thresh- 
hold  of  the  home  shall  have  been  passed. 


HEAR  TENEMENTS  CONGEST  MANY  OF 

GALVESTON'S  RESIDENTIAL  AREAS 

(From  Issue  of  Nov.  29.) 

The  crowding  of  houses  in  Galveston  has  previously  been  shown  only  from 
a  front  view,  as  it  were.  The  great  disadvantage  of  such  conditions  as  they  are 
regarded  from  that  viewpoint  consists  chiefly  in  the  elimination  of  the  element 
of  privacy  in  the  home  life  of  the  families  who  abide  in  houses  thrown  so  closely 
together  and  in  the  impairment  of  ventilation.  Of  course,  it  is  manifest  that 
where  the  members  of  one  household  can  converse  with  members  of  another 
across  the  intervening  space  between  their  homes,  without  the  inconvenience 
of  raising  their  voices  or  putting  their  hands  behind  their  ears,  an  impression 
of  the  absence  of  privacy  is  obtained  that  is  only  less  forcible  than  that  which 
follows  the  knowledge  that  the  interior  of  each  home  is  subjected  to  the  vision 
of  the  neighboring  family  unless  shades  and  blinds  are  constantly  employed  to 
shut  out  the  view. 

As  between  the  absence  of  privacy  and  the  intensifying  of  the  gloom  that 
naturally  shrouds  houses  which  are  jammed  together,  there  can  be  little  choice. 
By  cutting  off  the  vision,  the  sunlight  that  faintly  trickles  through  the  crevice 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  45 

between  two  closely  constructed  houses  is  likewise  kept  out.  At  the  same  time, 
the  airshaft — poor  at  best — that  is  formed  by  the  narrow  space  intervening,  is 
deprived  of  opportunity  to  fulfill  'its  feeble  function  when  windows  and  shades 
are  brought  into  use  to  conceal  the  privacy  of  the  home  from  the  eyes  of  curious 
neighbors. 

It  should,  therefore,  appear  to  the  mind  of  the  most  casual  observer  that 
such  conditions  are  not  conducive  to  good  housing  in  the  broader  sense  of  that 
term,  and,  further,  that  if  the  deficiency  found  in  this  situation  were  to  be  limited 
to  these  disadvantages  alone,  it  would  be  worth  the  while  of  people  to  consider 
how  matters  cou'd  be  remedied  and  to  take  precautions  against  the  ramification 
of  the  careless  methods  to  greater  areas  of  the  town. 

The  evils  of  house  congestion,  however,  do  not  end  with  the  crowding 
together  laterally  of  residences.  Once  the .  plan  of  choking  a  lot  horizontally 
is  adopted,  either  through  deliberate  purpose  to  make  money,  through  negligence 
of  definite  principles  of  housing,  or  through  contemning  them,  congestion  soon 
ceases  to  be  confined  to  the  lateral  extent  of  the  houses,  but  creeps  around  to 
the  rear  of  the  premises  and  makes  of  the  back  yard,  x  not  the  wide  expanse 
of  ground  to  delight  the  children  of  the  home  for  which  it  should  be  intended, 
but  a  constricted  area  for  the  accommodation  of  as  many  small  rent  houses  as 
its  dimensions  will  permit. 

In  reality,  this  is  the  worst  example  of  house  congestion  that  Galveston 
affords.  Privacy  is  unknown  among  families  who  occupy  rear  tenements. 
Sanitation  is  a  word  that  carries  with  it  little  signification.  There  is  no  room 
to  fulfill  the  ordinary  purposes  to  which  a  back  yard  is  put.  The  house  that 
fronts  on  the  street  is  deprived  of  its  natural  right  to  a  yard.  The  house  that 
fronts  on  the  alley  has  never  had  reasonable  expectation  of  having  a  yard  and 
is  content  to  be  crowded  between  thetrear  steps  of  the  big  house  and  the  stable 
that  goes  with  it. 

BACK  YARDS  ARE  CONGESTED. 

There  are  innumerable  instances  of  back  yard  crowding  in  Galveston.  Time 
and  again  the  writer  has  seen  a  row  of  houses  fronting  a  more  or  less  fashionable 
street  that  were  backed  up  to  the  rear  ends  of  a  row  of  shanties  fronting  a  more 
or  less  disreputable  alley.  An  effort  at  division  of  the  intervening  yards  had 
been  made  by  the  construction  of  a  fence  which  eventually  became  the 
dismembered  relic  of  a  one-time  laudable  purpose,  or  had  degenerated  into  the 
dead-line  that  separated  the  belligerent  scions  of  the  lowly  from  their  instinctive 
enemies,  the  Lord  Fauntleroys  of  the  Upper  Ten. 

Sanitation  is  at  a  premium  under  conditions  that  follow  this  sort  of 
arrangement  of  dwellings.  A  great  many  of  the  smaller  houses  of  Galveston 
are  without  sewerage  connections.  Sometimes  they  are  remote  from  the  sewer 
mains  and  can  not  be  connected.  Other  times  they  are  near  the  mains,  but  the 
landlord  or  the  property  owner,  whosoever  he  may  be,  has  either  failed  or  refused 
to  make  the  connection  that  the  law  requires.  The  big  house,  fronting  on  the 
street,  is  therefore  subjected  to  the  annoyance  of  outhouses  in  its  very  back 
yard.  The  closets  are  away  from  public  vision  and  often  are  allowed  to 
accumulate  quantities  of  fecal  waste  that  befoul  the  air  of  the  whole  premises  if 
they  do  not  threaten  the  health  of  the  immediate  community. 

Cut  up  into  small  areas,  the  back  yard  of  a  house  becomes  the  concentrating 
point  of  the  trash  of  the  rear  tenement  as  well  as  that  of  the  big  house.  Even 
the  distribution  of  dirt  sometimes  becomes  a  palliating  influence.  It  is  devoid 


46  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

at  least  of  the  repulsiveness  of 'concentration.  The  more  corners  in  a  back  yard 
the  more  congregating  points  of  filth  there  are,  and  the  jamming  together  of 
rear  ends  of  dwellings,  separated  only  by  narrow  strips  of  ground  divided  by 
makeshift  fences,  provides  excellent  facilities  for  the  accumulation  of  dirt  that 
often  defies  the  most  energetic  efforts  to  remove. 

The  small  premises  fronting  the  alleys  usually  have  as  an  important  part 
of  their  complement  a  cow  or  two,  a  horse,  a  donkey  or  a  pack  of  dogs. 
Frequently  one  sees  a  miniature  back  yard,  struggling  for  a  legitimate  title  to 
that  designation  between  a  rear  tenement  and  a  large  house  facing  the  street, 
occupied  by  cattle.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  lots  are  but  120  feet  in 
depth,  and  that  the  large  house  and  the  small  one,  if  they  be  houses  at  all,  must 
aggregate  in  length  at  least  100  feet.  The  area  left  for  yard  purposes  of  both 
dwellings  consists,  therefore,  of  but  a  bare  twenty  feet  in  depth,  and  when  this 
is  shared  by  a  horse  or  a  cow  or  a  goat  on  the  one  side  and  a  small  boy  playing 
marbles  on  the  other,  it's  odds  on  the  former  to  hold  the  fort.  And  that  small 
boy  proposition  is  not  of  inconsiderable  value.  The  back  yard  belongs  to  him. 
It's  his  playground  and  he  suffers  correspondingly,  experience  proves,  to  his 
lack  of  it.  Parents  are  not  disposed  to  permit  their  children  to  run  the  streets. 
Out  there  they  can  not  control  the  boy's  associations.  But  what  are  they  to  do 
when  the  back  yard  hardly  affords  room  to  turn  around  in,  or  is  simply  an 
uninviting  annex  to  a  cow  stable?  , 

A  THOUGHT  FOR  THE  BOY. 

"That  b'y  is  a  curious  youngsther,"  said  a  pleasant-faced  Irish  washerwoman 
whom  the  writer  met  in  Galve'ston  the  other  day,  designating  a  little  fellow  of 
some  eight  summers  who  was  trotting  down  the  street  with  a  tin  tucket  in  his 
hand.  "The  yar-r-rd  is  shmall  and  the  drainage  ain't  good  and  the  pore  little  divil 
gits  rheumatiz  playin'  'round.  But  the  funny  thing  is  that  the  rheumatiz  leaves 
him  whin  he  hits  the  sthreet.  An'  I  can't  find  it  in  me  hear-r-rt  to  keep,  him  in 
the  yar-r-r-rd.  It's  no  place  for  a  b'y  anyway." 

This  industrious  soul  lived  in  a  house  that  was  backed  up  against  a  row  of 
shanties.  The  ordinary  space  of  ground  that  should  be  allotted  to  one  house 
not  only  had  to  serve  the  purpose  for  two  dwellings,  but  it  had  to  accommodate 
extensions  of  both  houses,  provide  room  for  two  closets  and  afford  stable  room 
for  a  couple  of  flea-bitten  mules.  The  unsightly  mess  in  the  mule  lot  was  hardly 
more  insufferable  to  the  eye  than  the  mixture  of  dish  and  rainwater  in  the  back- 
yard of  the  house  of  the  washerwoman.  And  she  was  doing  her  best  to  relieve 
the  evil  condition  when  the  writer  encountered  her.  Her  rough  skirt  was  pinned 
ur  and  with  broom  and  pail  she  was  making  a  vigorous  fight  against  the  wet 
grounds  so  her  little  grandson  could  have  a  "place  fer  ter  play  mar-r-rbles  whin 
the  sun  comes  out  and  dhries  the  yar-r-rd."  Lack  of  sewerage  compelled  her  to 
empty  her  dishpans  in  the  yard.  There  was  no  other  place  for  the  waste  to  go. 
And  when  Jupiter  Pluvius  complicated  her  work  "the  little  divil"  had  to  take  to 
the  street  until  his  grandmother  could  get  the  back  yard  into  a  condition  not 

inimical  to  his  health. 

Investigation  of  this  condition  will  prove  intensely  interesting.  In  many 
areas  in  Galveston  conditions  in  the  rear  of  first-class  dwellings  are  as  badly 
congested  as  they  are  in  front,  with  the  difference  that  the  front  part  of  ^he 
premises  is  usually  neat  and  clean  whereas  the  rear  is  not  as  a  rule  above 
reproach  from  a  sanitary  viewpoint. 

A  panoramic  view  of  some  blocks  of  the  city  would  give  the  impression  of  a 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  47 

large-size  rabbit  warren — big  houses  in  front,  jammed  together  so  closely  that 
passage  between  them  is  impossible,  disputing,  as  it  were,  inch  by  inch  the 
encroachment  of  the  little  huts  and  cottages  in  the  rear,  but  suffering  the 
constant  humiliation  of  defeat. 

There  are  often,  it  is  said,  more  persons  living  in  houses  facing  the  alley 
than  there  are  living  in  the  dwellings  behind  them,  facing  the  street. 

The  houses  are  so  closely  crowded  that  privacy  is  an  unknown  element  of 
home  life  and  adequate  sanitation  is  merely  a  Utopian  conception. 

The  people,  thus  hemmed  in,  can  not  be  clean  and  it  does  not  require  many 
failures  to  convince  them  of  this  and  to  render  them  indisposed  to  try. 


GALVESTON'S  HIGH  COTTAGE  FORMS 

PART  OF  CITY'S  HOUSING  PROBLEM 

(From  Issue  of  Nov.  30.) 

Meeting  the  exigencies  of  grade-raising  has  given  rise  in  Galveston  to  a 
type  of  architecture  peculiar  to  that  city — the  high  cottage — which  is  sure  to 
attract  early  the  attention  of  the  visitor.  Extension  of  the  plan,  formulated 
originally  in  necessity,  then  elaborated  for  the  convenience  of  the  household 
with  respect  to  more  spacious  accommodations,  has  given  many  parts  of  the 
city  a  stilted  appearance.  The  prominent  architectural  lines  of  the  structural 
city  are  perpendicular  and  noticeably  elongated,  depriving  the  appearance  of 
the  whole  of  that  physical  beauty  which  comes  from  lateral  expansion  of 
building  schemes. 

When  the  elevation  of  the-  grade  of  the  low  areas  of  the  island  was 
undertaken  it  became  necessary  to  raise  ih^  dwellings  to  permit  the  work  of 
filling  to  go  on  around  them.  The  people  soon  ascertained  .that  there  was 
little  difference  in  the  cost  of  raising  their  houses  two  feet  and  five  feet.  The 
chief  expense  of  the  undertaking  was  met  when  the  structures  were  lifted  from 
their  foundations.  It  was  but  a  matter  of  defraying  a  small  additional  cost  for 
more  lumber  to  provide  large  .surface  cellars  beneath  the  first  floors  of  the 
houses,  which  would  give  adequate  room  for  all  storage  purposes  in  need  of 
which  the  occupants  might  be.  Consequently,  the  houses  were  lifted  several  feet 
above  the  new  grade  line  and  the  nether  spaces  inclosed  by  clapboards,  making 
basement  rooms  co-extensive  in  surface  with  the  original  foundation  areas.  Thus 
arose  the  high  cottage  of  Galveston. 

As  building  continued  and  house  owners  had  opportunity  to  observe  the 
successful  working  of  this  plan  of  acquiring  for  housing  purposes  the  maximum 
room  which  a  lot  afforded,  the  idea  of  the  high  cottage  obtained  wider  vogue  and 
became  the  type  of  dwelling  selected  by  persons  who  desired  to  invest  $500  to 
$2.000  in  homes  or  rental  property.  The  result  has  been  that  Galveston  is  choked 
with  high  cottages.  Throughout  the  residence  districts  of  the  city  one  sees 
them.  They  are  crowded  into  small  areas  that  do  not  provide  room  for  yards. 
In  many  instances  they  have  been  erected  so  close  to  the  sidewalk  line  that  the 
construction  of  stairways  of  sufficient  length  to  reach  the  first  floor  of  the 
dwelling  has  imposed  the  necessity  of  building  the  steps  oblique  to  the  front  of 
the  house  instead  of  at  right  angles  to  it  as  is  the  custom  elsewhere  with  respect 
if>  the  construction  of  small  dwellings.  The  porches  are  small  as  a  rule  and 
seldom  afford  more  space  than  would  be  required  for  two  or  three  chairs.  A 
small  plot  of  ground  may  afford  opportunity  for  the  cultivation  of  a  miniature 


48  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

flower  garden  in  front  of  the  house  and  under  the  steps,  but  it  would  be 
overcrowded  by  the  congregation  of  half  a  dozen  children  for  a  game  of  mumble- 
peg  or  jack-stones.  There  is  no  place  for  romping — not  even  for  marbles  played 
in  a  big  ring. 

The  rear  of  the  tenant  cottages  of  this  type  presents  no  fairer  prospect  for 
yard  space.  Long  flights  of  steps  reach  to  the  ground  and  clothes  lines  clutter 
the  air  space.  Sheds  and  outhouses  occupy  considerable  territory,  the  rest  of 
which,  in  many  instances,  is  kept  for  a  long  time  in  dampness  by  inadequate 
drainage.  The  rear  of  houses  fronting  on  the  alley  prevent  frequently  the 
extension  of  the  yards  to  proper  lengths. 

PURPOSES  OF  SUCH  INCLOSURES. 

The  inclosed  areas  beneath  the  high  cottages  are  used  for  a  multiplicity  of 
purposes.  Generally  household  goods  and  fuel  are  stored  there,  as  they  find  a 
place  secure  from  inclement  weather.  Many  of  them  have  been  converted  into 
washrooms  where  the  weekly  task  of  laundering  is  performed.  Some  of  them 
are  floored,  others  are  not.  Frequently  windows  have  been  cut  in  the  boarding, 
giving  light,  ventilation  and  sunshine  necessary  to  better  sanitation.  Not 
infrequently,  however,  and  perhaps  in  the  more  numerous  cases,  these  inclosures 
are  dark  and  without  ventilation  save  that  which  comes  through  the  doors  and 
cracks  in  the  woodwork. 

The  writer  has  seen  these  inclosures  serving  the  purpose  of  stables  for  horses 
and  cows. 

Some  of  them  were  clean  stables;  others  were  not.  And  in  connection  with 
that  discovery  the  question  suggested  itself:  Does  good  housing  contemplate  a 
stable  as  a  foundation  for  a  home,  be  it  thoroughly  cleaned  daily  and  maintained 
in  a  condition  that,  for  a  stable,  would  be  termed  sanitary?  It  would  doubtless 
occur  to  any  one  that  daily  cleaning  of  a  stable  would  preclude  deleterious 
consequences  that  would  naturally  be  expected  to  follow  such  a  condition  of 
housing.  But  the  writer  saw  conditions  surrounding  this  phase  of  the  housing 
problem  in  Galveston  that  appeared  to  him  not  to  have  been  relieved  in  several 
days  or,  perhaps,  a  week.  At  his  approach  flies  swarmed  helter-skelter  from 
their  quiet  nesting  and  feeding  in  the  filth  in  which  they  breed  and  thrive. 

The  city  health  department  assured  the  writer  that  conditions  of  this  kind 
did  not  give  it  undue  trouble.  Where  complaint  is  made,  occupants  of  the 
premises  are  compelled  to  clean  up  in  accordance  with  the  city's  regulations. 
Inspectors  of  the  department  are  vigilant  and  do  what  they  can  to  prevent  the 
accumulation  of  dirt  and  filth,  but  they  are  not  always  able  to  accomplish  in  its 
entirety  that  which  should  be  done  to  maintain  suc.h  stables  in  conditions 
conforming  to  the  well-known  rules  of  sanitation.  However,  eliminating  the 
consideration  of  sanitation,  and  assuming  that  stables  of  this  kind  are  kept  free 
of  accumulated  filth  and  fecal  matter,  it  was  frequently  admitted  to  the  writer 
that  the  practice  of  keeping  stock  beneath  the  living  rooms  of  families  does  not 
comport  with  the  we'.l-grounded  principles  of  good  and  adequate  housing. 

Not  all  the  houses  that  have  been  elevated  high  above  the  ground  have  had 
their  under-spaces  inclosed.  Open  spaces  are  found  beneath  many  of  them,  the 
stilts  upon  which  they  rest  being  clearly  exposed  to  view.  The  ground  under 
the  floor  is  not  infrequently  clean,  but  of  the  instances  noted  by  the  writer  the 
r.jajority  showed  a  practice  on  the  part  of  the  occupants  to  sweep  the  dirt  of  the 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  49 

premises  under  the  house.     They  thereby  got  it  out  of  the  way  and  out  of  sight. 
But  it,  nevertheless,  remained. 

The  relative  value  of  the  merits  and  demerits  of  the  high  cottage  is  largely 
a  matter  of  opinion.     In  Galveston  it  has  its  advocates  as  well  as  its  opponents. 


HOME  OWNERSHIP  COMMON  AMONG 

GALVESTON'S   LABORING   POPULATION 

(From   Issue   of   Dec.    1.) 

Galveston  is  fortunate  in  a  comparative  lack  of  poverty.  Of  the  laboring 
people,  the  majority  find  employment  on  the  docks  and  receive  wages  that  are 
adequate  not  only  to  the  needs  of  life,  but. are  sufficient  to  provide  the  nucleus 
of  a  savings  account  that  eventually  develops  into  a  sum  large  enough  to  make 
the  possession  of  a  home  possible. 

Work  along  the  docks  does  not  maintain  a  constant  level.  It  fluctuates 
with  the  seasons,  and  at  times  each  year  the  dock-worker  is  without  employment 
or  is  forced  to  accept  much  less  compensation  than  the  $4,  $5  or  even  $8  a  day 
which  he  has  opportunity  to  earn  while  shipping  is  at  its  height.  The  good 
wives  of  the  longshoremen  and  stevedores  are  not  unmindful  of  this  condition, 
and  in  the  time  of  plenty  they  prepare  for  the  period  of  less  affluence  which 
they  know  will  follow.  They  are  as  a  class  frugal,  thrifty  women  and  take  care 
of  their  homes  with  diligent  pride.  They  have  as  a  rule  mastered  the  economy 
of  the  home  and  have  assisted  their  husbands  to  put  by  for  hard  times  or 
investment  definite  portions  of  their  annual  incomes.  The  result  has  been, 
according  to  dependable  information,  that  the  majority  of  Galveston's  laboring 
element  is  composed  of  home-owners.  And  were  it  not  for  deficiencies  in 
building  plans  that  have  already  been  pointed  out,  and  others  which  will 
subsequently  be  shown,  Galveston  would  be  largely  in  a  class  by  itself  with 
respect  to  the  working  out  of  an  ideal  housing  scheme. 

This  fact  suggests  the  thought  that  there  is  little  overcrowding  of  tenants 
in  the  homes  of  the  working  people.  And  this  is  true.  For  the  most  part  the 
homes  are  occupied  by  the  members  of  one  family,  except  during  the  period 
when  shipping  is  at  its  height  and  itinerant  laborers  come  into  the  port  to  obtain 
temporary  work  along  the  wharves.  Then  home-owners  begin  to  take  in 
boarders,  and  not  infrequently  do  they  crowd  their  families  into  spaces  too 
small  to  be  occupied  collectively  in  comfort.  Houses  ranging  in  size  from  three 
to  five  rooms,  occupied  ordinarily  by  families  of  five  to  ten  persons,  are 
sometimes  made  to  bear  the  burden  of  additional  boarders  and  lodgers  during 
the  busy  season.  But  this  is  not  the  rule  among  the  working  people,  it  is 
learned,  the  year  'round.  The  negroes,  of  course,  supply  the  exceptions.  They 
crowd  into  their  houses  without  regard  for  sanitation,  ventilation  or  decency. 
But  among  the  white  laborers  in  Galveston  "the  lodger  evil"  has  not  intruded 
itself  offensively. 

The  city  has  done  a  great  deal  for  its  people,  and  that  which  it  now  lack.~ 
in  provisions  for  their  proper  care  is  largely  contemplated  in  the  plan  of  general 
improvement  to  which  the  authorities  are  adhering,  but  which  will  require  time 
to  work  out  thoroughly  and  successfully. 


I* 


X 


52  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

LIMITATIONS    OF    SEWER    SYSTEM. 

For  an  example,  the  sewerage  system  is  not  coextensive  with  the  area  of 
the  city.  This  is  a  deficiency  that  is  not  at  all  peculiar  to  Galveston.  It  is 
common  to  cities  of  Texas  that  have  not  had  the  obstacles  to  overcome  that 
have  appeared  at  times  to  all  but  determined,  courageous,  unrelaxing 
Galvestonians  to  be  insurmountable.  But  as  quickly  as  the  work  can  be  done 
the  system  of  sewerage  will  be  extended  so  as  to  provide  accommodations  for 
all  houses  within  the  'limits  of  the  city. 

The  Surface  of  parts  of  the  city  is  too  low  to  supply  the  necessary  incline 
for  draining  the  sewer  mains  into  the  Gulf.  Money  is  needed  to  raise  the  grade, 
as  it  is  an  expensive  undertaking.  As  soon  as  these  portions  can  be  filled,  the 
sewers  will  be  extended  to  parts  of  the  city  that  are  now  without  them.  At  the 
same  time  the  Health  Department  has  tentative  plans  concerning  the  installment 
of  a  modern  system  of  sewerage  to  operate  by  compressed  air.  At  present, 
however,  this  is  in  contemplation  only. 

Limitations  of  the  sewerage  system  necessarily  have  given  rise  to  a  large 
number  of  surface  closets  throughout  the  unsupplied  area.  Sanitary  inspectors 
endeavor  to  prevent  accumulations  of  waste  that  would  become  pernicious 
agencies  in  a  community,  but  this  is  a  task  in  the  performance  of  which 
perfection  has  not  yet  been  attained.  Where  complaints  are  made  they  are 
speedily  attended  to,  but  the  corps  of  inspectors  is  probably  not  large  enough 
to  bring  about  a  constant  standard  of  cleanliness  among  outhouses  of  this  kind. 
Altogether,  the  unsanitary  and  unhealthful  were  frequently  seen  throughout  the 
unsewered  area. 

More  minute  inspection  by  a  larger  force  of  inspectors  would  probably  effec: 
an  immediately  noticeable  change  in  conditions  surrounding  Galveston  houses 
that  have  lacked  a  good  deal  of  being  clean.  It  is  unquestionably  a  difficult 
matter  to  prevent  surface  closets  from  becoming  unsanitary,  and  the  most 
rigorous  inspection  must  be  constantly  applied  to  keep  situations  from  passing 
beyond  control.  During  the  summer  seven  inspectors  are  employed,  but  with 
the  coming  of  winter  that  number  is  reduced  to  two.  They  are  manifestly 
handicapped  in  their  work  by  a  task  too  large  for  them  to  accomplish. 

In  the  same  light  must  the  accumulations  of  trash  in  yards  and  around 
residences  be  viewed.  For  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  city  clean,  the 
Commissioners  have  imposed  upon  its  own  expense  account  the  cost  of  hauling 
away  and  destroying  the  garbage.  All  that  is  required  of  citizens  is  to  collect 
the  trash  of  their  premises  into  piles  or  boxes,  which  are  removed  regularly  by 
the  city's  street  forces.  This  is  done  without  cost  to  the  occupants  of  the  house, 
although  they  are  required  to  pay  a  nominal  ?um  for  the  privilege  of  sewer 
connections.  During  the  visit  of  the  writer  to  Galveston  the  city  was  at  work 
upon  a  modern  incinerator  in  which  the  refuse  of  the  town  is  to  be  destroyed. 

UNATTRACTIVE  BACK  YARDS  ARE  SEEN. 

However,  there  are  a  great  many  houses  in  Galveston  whose  occupants 
evidently  do  not  avail  themselves  of  the  city's  liberality  in  regard  to  the 
disposition  of  trash  and  garbage.  Dirty  back  yards  are  not  at  all  uncommon. 
Trash  and  filth  of  all  kinds  are  allowed  to  collect  in  many  yards  the  writer 
inspected,  which,  together  with  poor  drainage  and  the  consequent  standing  of 
dishwater,  soapsuds  and  puddles  formed  by  late  rains,  made  of  certain  premises 
— many  of  them,  in  fact — veritable  eyesores  to  the  observer  with  a  sanitary  bent. 

Galveston  has  one  characteristic  that  few  other  cities  in  Texas,  if  any,  can 
boast.  There  are  very  few  houses  used  as  dwellings  that  are  without  runnincr 
water  within  their  walls.  The  hydrant  in  the  yard  is  virtually  unknown  in 
Galveston  as  the  source  of  supply  for  the  water  of  the  home. 

However,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  city  that  requires  adequate  screenino:, 
and  this  it  does  not  have.  The  salt  moisture  with  which  the  air  is  impregnated 
rapidly  rusts  out  most  of  the  screens  other  than  copper-made,  and  makes  this 
means  of  protection  against  flies  and  mosquitoes  more  expensive  than  it  is  in 
inland  territory.  Very  few  indeed  of  the  houses  occupied  by  working  people, 
particularly  the  rent  houses,  seen  by  the  writer,  were  adequately  screened. 

Correction  of  this  deficiency  will  probably  come  with  wider  education  of 
property  owners  to  the  needs  of  tenants  and  a  more  comprehensive  understand-1 
ing  of  what  it  means  to  a  community  to  be  properly  housed. 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  53 

HOUSES  OF  GALVESTON  EVIDENCE  NEED 

OF  MORE  ENDURING  COATS  OF  PAINT 

(From   Issue   of  Dec.   2.) 

More  than  any  other  conspicuous  city  in  Texas,  Galveston  needs  painting. 
The  first-time  visitor  to  the  seaport  is  struck  by  a  dull  aspect  of  things  physical 
which  often  reacts  prejudicially  upon  him  and  engenders  criticisms  of  the  town 
lhat  are  not  borne  out  in  truth.  Colorless  planks,  or  lumber  that  has  lost  its 
chromatic  embellishments,  are  not  suggestive  of  brightness  within,  nor  do  they 
reflect  an  encouraging  light  around  them. 

In  their  original  coatings,  houses',  of  Galveston  have  presented  most  of  the 
colors  of  the  spectrum.  The  taste  of  the  people  who  have  had  the  means  to 
build  more  or  less  pretentious  .houses  has  largely  run  to  bright  colors,  such  as 
yellow  and  red.  although  the  old-fashioned  and  ever-popular  white  is  also  a 
favorite.  Among  the  smaller  houses,  white  paint  predominates,  or,  more  correctly 
speaking,  it  did.  The  constant  action  of  salt,  moist  air  has  not  been  well 
withstood.  The  result  has  been  that  throughout  the  town,  in  the  districts  of  the 
wealthy  and  in  those  sections  that  are  inhabited  chiefly  by  laboring  people,  the 
houses  as  a  rule  present  a  bedraggled  appearance  due  to  the  lack  of  paint. 

The  dampness  of  the  atmosphere,  however,  according  to  Mr.  I.  H.  Kempner, 
a  member  of  the  Board  of  City  .Commissioners,  is  not  the  exclusive  cause  of  the 
rapid  disintegration,  or  wearing  away  of  painted  surfaces.  The  cause  frequently 
is  found  in  the  paint  itself,  although,  of  course,  whatever  inherent  defect  the 
composition  may  have,  more  readily  manifests  itself  under  the  erosive  effect  of 
the  salt  moisture  in  the  air.  The  practice  has  long  been  followed  in  Galveston, 
i^  is  said,  of  calling  for  bids  on  the  painting  of  houses,  and  as  a  rule  the  cheapest 
proposition  is  accepted.  It  has  apparently  happened  that  the  cheaper  the  contract 
the.  cheaper  and  less  enduring  the  paint.  Where  the  best  paints  have  been  used, 
said  Mr.  Kempner,  they  have  been  found  to  last  well,  and  consequently  .have 
precluded  for  a  long  time  the  coming  of  that  half-washed  appearance  that  many 
houses  in  the  city  present. 

On  account  of  this  appearance  of  dissolving  paint,  coupled  with  inferior 
drainage  which  parts  of  the  island  afford,  Galveston  for  several  days  after  a  rain 
is  shown  at  its  worst.  But  the  impression  should  not  be  gained  that  it  is  a 
dirty  city.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  comparatively  clean.  Its  sandy  soil  does  not 
produce  the  mud  nuisance  and  the  streets  and  sidewalks  disclose  the  constant 
attention  of  local  authorities  to  their  upkeep. 

Among  all  stations  of  society,  some  of  the  prettiest  homes  in  Texas  are  found 
in  Galveston.  Flower  gardens  and  lawns  surrounding  the  mansions  of  the 
wealthy  are  no  more  complete  when  gauged  by  their  grander  scale  than  are  those 
that  provide  the  settings  for  the  little  .homes  of  those  people  in  modest 
circumstances  who  understand  the  idea  of  a  home  and  have  bent  their  endeavors 
toward  achieving  it  in  the  abiding  places  of  their  families.  The  mild  climate — 
almost  perennial  summer — of  the  island  makes  possible  the  cultivation  of 
luxuriant  plants  and  flowers  whose  blooms  delight  the  eye  and  fill  the  air  with 
fragrance.  The  writer  passed  dozens  and  dozens  of  little  homes,  ranging  in  cost 
from  $1,000  to  $3,000,  that 'bore  in  their  outward  aspect  of  comfort  and  beauty 
indisputable  testimony  to  the  inward  good  taste  and  contentment  that  give  the 
atmosphere  and  environment  of  the  cottage  some  of  the  charm  of  the  palace. 
Ownership  of  a  home  carries  with  it  not  only  the  stimulus  of  pride  in  possession, 


56  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

but  the  greater  encouragement  and  satisfaction  that  come  with  the  sense  of  being- 
settled — an  anchor  to  windward  along  whose  unyielding  cable  the  forces  of 
confidence  and  determination  are  electrified  into  definite  influences  upon  life. 
Where  the  family  owns  its  home  the  principles  of  good  housing  usually  govern 
in  its  construction,  equipment,  economy  and  occupancy.  There  are  bathtubs, 
ventilation  and  sanitation,  and  there  is  not  as  a  rule  filth  nor  overcrowding.  It 
is  learned  upon  dependable  authority  that  there  are  very  few  houses  in  Galveston, 
comparatively  speaking,  that  are  not  equipped  with  bathtubs. 

The  demand  for  houses  in  Galveston — which  reveals  the  city's  advancement — 
has  raised  rentals  to  a  pretty  high  level  in  comparison  with  standards  that  prevail 
with  respect  to  workingmen's  dwellings  in  other  cities  of  its  size.  Rentals  on 
this  character  of  house  will  range  from  $8  to  $16  a  month,  the  average,  according 
to  dependable  information,  being  some  figure  between  $10  and  $16.  Houses  of 
the  kind  may  be  erected  on  a  scale  of  expense  ranging  from  $500.  to  $1,500, 
convenience  to  town,  desirability  of  location  and  other  elements  besides  the  cost 
of  construction,  entering  into  the  rental  factor.  But  while  rents  are  apparently 
high,  the  situation  adjusts  itself  in  the  general  competency  of  th-e  working  people 
as.  wage-earners.  It  has  been  previously  pointed  out  that  Galveston  is  largely 
barren  of  poor  people.  There  are  few  vacant  houses.  The  laborer  is  able  to  pay 
the  rent  that  is  charged  and  does  so  without  complaint  because  he  is  well  provided 
with  means.  The  mean  wealth  of  the  town  in  comparison  to  that  of  others  of 
its  size  and  activities  would  probably  be  found  to  measure  to  a  very  high  standard, 
And,  of  course,  the  general  affluence  of  a  city  minimizes  proportionately  its 
housing  problems. 


SAN  ANTONIO'S  HOUSING  PROBLEM 

CONCERNS  THE  POORER  MEXICANS 

(From    Issue   of   Dec.    3.) 

In  its  housing  problem,  as  in  many  things,  San  Antonio  is  thoroughly  unique. 
The  elements  of  contrasts,  of  antithetical  extremes,  are  rarely  revealed  more 
prominently  than  they  are  shown  in  its  manner  of  sheltering  us  people.  Of 
housing  conditions  found  to  surround  the  unskilled  working  people  of  the 
conspicuous  Texas  cities,  those  of  San  Antonio  are  unquestionably  at  once  the 
best  and  the  worst.  They  are  best  in  the  almost  universal  practice  among  the 
more  competent  of  the  American  working  people  of  owning  their  own  homes  or 
residing  singly  in  families  in  individual  rent  houses.  They  are  worst  in  the 
extremity  of  overcrowding  to  which  a  large  percentage  of  the  Mexican  popula- 
tion is  subjected. 

The  chief  housing  question  of  San  Antonio  for  a  long  time  has  been:  What 
is  to  be  done  wi£h  the  Mexican  population?  .  At  times  efforts  have  been  made  to 
solve  it  satisfactorily,  but  none  of  them  has  attained  ripe  success,  although  there 
are  at  present  in  process  of  evolution  a  number  of  laudable  enterprises  looking 
to  the  solution  of  the  problem. 

It  can  not  be  said,  however,  that  San  Antonio  has  devoted  much  attention 
t'j  the  housing  of  its  Mexican  inhabitants.  They  have  been  more  or  less  regarded 
as  Nomadic  tribes,  coming  and  going  at  will,  to  whom  local  habitations  were  ot 
no  consequence  other  than  to  provide  protection  against  occasional  rain  and 
supply  a  temporary  hearthstone  for  the  preparation  of  tortillos  and  beans. 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  r- 

The  American  population  has  worked  out  its  own  salvation.  Subscribing 
to  different  principles  of  life  and  imbued  with  a  more  electric  energy,  it  built 
its  own  homes,  furnished  its  own  houses  and  lived  its  own  life  of  industry  and 
amusement.  The  Mexicans,  perhaps,  were  expected  to  do  the  same.  And  yet 
more  than  one-fifth  of  the  entire  population  of  the  city  of  San  Antonio  consists 
of  Mexican  people. 

It  must  be  understood  in  the  beginning  that  not  all  the  Mexicans  of  San 
Antonio  belong  to  what  is  called  the  laboring  contingent.  There  are  many 
affluent  citizens  of  Mexican  blood  who  have  cast  their  lots  with  the  development 
of  the  Southwest,  and  in  the  field  of  merchandise,  in  the  higher  trades,  in 
professional  life  the  educated,  active,  intelligent  Mexican  competes  shoulder  to 
shoulder  and  successfully  with  his  American  brother. 

It  is  not  these  Mexicans  who  have  suffered  from  neglect  by  San  Antonio. 
Like  the  Americans,  they  have  taken  care  of  themselves,  made  their  own  ways 
in  the  world  and  built  their  own  homes  to  the  satisfaction  of  their  tastes  and 
desires.  They  are  important  integers  in  San  Antonio's  economic  and  political 
life.  It  is  rather  the  lowlier  element  that  supplies  the  sociological  problem — the 
wage-makers  whose  earning  power  is  limited  by  capacity  or  circumstance  to  $6, 
$8  or  $10  a  week. 

Of  these  there  are  many  in  San  Antonio.  It  is  they  who  lend  verisimilitude 
to  the  Spanish  cast  of  the  town,  as  they  shamble  along  the  streets  in  bright 
zapares  and  tall  sombreros,  vending  their  wares  to  the  curious  tourist.  It  is 
they  who  work  the  city's  streets  or  walk  them  in  search  of  odd  jobs  here  and 
there  at  $1.25  a  day.  It  is  they,  with  their  constant  rivals  and  ii.stinctive  enemies, 
the  negroes,  who  chiefly  make  up  San  Antonio's  laboring  people.  And  it  is  they 
who  are  housed  under  conditions  equaling  if  not  surpassing  the  congestion  of 
New  York  tenements,  with  the  single  conspicuous  difference  that  in  San  Antonio's 
Mexican  corrals  the  overcrowding  extends  laterally  and  in  New  York  it  seeks 
relief  in  structure  upon  structure  perpendicularly. 

These  corrals  are  among  the  showplaces  of  the  city.  Not  that  San  Antonio 
is  proud  of  them,  for  it  is  not,  and  frequently  there  have  been  started  movements 
to  do  away  with  them;  but  they  are  the  scenes  that  the  tourist  of  the  North 
wants  to  see  and  he  seeks  them  out.  Amazed,  perhaps,  at  their  squalor,  and 
dumfounded  at  the  manifest  contentment  of  the  occupants  under  conditions 
revolting  to  the  eye  and  the  nostril,  he  nevertheless  carries  away  an  impression 
of  their  picturesqueness  and  a  remembrance  of  their  suggestion  of  old  Mexico. 
They  are  picturesque,  but  only  in  that  they  are  unusual.  That  they  suggest  the 
life  of  peons  of  the  Republic  to  the  South,  and  are,  perhaps,  an  improvement 
upon  it,  those  who  are  competent  to  judge  have  no  doubt.  It  is  certain  that 
one  who  finds  himself  in  the  midst  of  them  momentarily  wonders  if  he  be,  after 
all,  in  the  United  States  of  America. 

Bent  on  exploration  and  eager  to  see  anything  interesting  and  new  the  city 
affords,  the  visitor  jumps  into  an  automobile  on  a  crisp,  sunny  morning  when 
San  Antonio,  the  beautiful,  is  at  its  best,  and  whirling  through  thoroughfares 
cleaved  between  long  rows  of  buildings  of  metropolitan  aspect  and  size,  comes  in 
a  few  minutes'  drive  to  a  gateway  to  what  he  first  believes  to  be  a  wagon-yard, 
typical  of  Texas  towns.  Alighting  from  his  car  he  passes  through  the  opening 
and  finds  himself  within  a  rectangular  inclosure  resembling  more  than  anything 
else  that  suggests  itself  to  his  mind  the  interior  of  a  western  fort,  showing  the 
rear  view  of  the  barracks.  The  building  is  low  and  long,  extending  fully  one 


58  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

hundred  yards  from  the  gate.  A  low  gallery,  covered  by  a  roof  whose  eaves  can 
be  touched  by  the  fingers  of  a  tall  man,  girdles  the  building  like  a  belt.  At 
intervals  of  about  nine  or  ten  feet  are  doors — entrances  to  the  living  stalls  of 
families.  Above  the  roof  of  the  gallery  ventilators  that  open  outward  on  hinges 
break  the  dark  continuity  of  the  upper  wall  and  lend  a  bit  of  grotesque  irregularity 
to  a  building  scheme  whose  conspicuous  characteristic  is  its  solemn  plainness. 

The  visitor  steps  to  the  gallery  and  looks  through  one  of  the  doors.  Dirt  and 
disorder  are  in  supreme  control.  He  enters  a  nine  or  ten-foot  room.  To  the  left 
is  a  bunk,  heaped  with  soiled  and  ragged  coverings.  To  the  right  are  the  patched- 
up  remnants  of  an  antiquated  bed  in  similar  disarray.  In  one  of  the  corners 
cf  the  room  are  found  the  heaped-up  components  of  a  pallet.  Guitars  and 
mandolins  adorn  the  wall,  with  here  and  there  a  Mexican  flag,  a  picture  of  Benito 
Juarez  or  a  crucifix.  The  spiders  and  the  flies,  during  the  intermittent  pauses 
in  their  aggressions  one  upon  the  other,  engage  in  ceaseless  rivalry  in  mural 
decorations. 

Passing  through  to  the  rear  room,  the  eye  of  the  visitor  notes  at  a  glance 
the  sloping  of  the  roof  downward  to  meet  the  lower  back  wall  of  the  house. 
Shingles  only  protect  the  room  space  from  the  weather.  A  small  cook  stove,  in 
a  bad  state  of  repair,  is  filling  the  room  with  the  pungent  aroma  of  burning 
mesquite  limbs,  as  upon  it  boils  merrily  a  can  of  frijoles,  or  Mexican  beans.  A 
table,  from  the  surface  of  which  one  may  scrape  with  his  finger  nail,  or  preferably 
the  ferrule  of  his  cane,  parrafin-like  cakes  of  grease  and  grime;  a  chair  or  two, 
a  wood  box,  a  worn-out  broom  and  kitchen  utensils  of  various  kinds  complete 
the  scene.  It's  a  cold  morning.  Behind  the  stove  a  hairless  dog  is  dozing.  He 
only  opens  his  eyes  half-way  to  note  the  intrusion,  then  goes  back  to  sleep.  He, 
too,  is  Mexican. 

Returning  to  the  front  room  the  visitor  perceives  a  ladder.  Above  it  is  a 
square  opening  cut  in  the  ceiling — if  ceiling  it  be — of  the  sleepng  room.  Pursuing 
his  way  up  the  ladder  he  finds  himself  in  a  loft,  covered  with  bedding.  He  then 
appreciates  the  function  of  the  ventilators,  the  odd  appearance  of  which  struck 
his  eye  when  he  entered  the  premises.  He  hurries  back,  after  a  rapid  survey  of 
the  room,  to  the  aperture  through  which  he  descends  to  the  fresher  air  below, 
grateful  for  the  opportunity  to  catch  his  breath  again. 

Stall  after  stall  is  visited.  There  are  more  than  fifty  of  them.  All  were 
found  in  virtually  the  same  condition  of  uncleanliness.  All  gave  evidence  of 
occupancy  by  more  persons  than  they  could  comfortably  accommodate.  All 
rented  for  goc  a  week,  except  those  in  which  the  landlord  provided  the  stove. 
And  they?  One  dollar  and  a  quarter  a  week! 

Some  of  them  are  always  occupied.  All  are  sometimes  occupied.  Frequently 
several  hundred  persons  are  found  living  in  the  entire  corral.  The  landlord  had 
never  counted  them.  He  didn't  know  how  many  tenants  he  had.  His  dealings 
were  with  one  member  of  a  family  or  with  an  individual  who  wanted  lodging. 
Sometimes  there  were  a  hundred.  Sometimes  there  were  more.  Cotton-picking 
time  always  reduces  his  population.  And  it  was  cotton-picking  time  then.  At 
least  all  the  laborers  of  the  field  had  not  returned  to  the  city  from  the  country. 
Soon  as  frost  comes  business  will  pick  up.  The  landlord  was  kept  busy  counting 
bis  money.  No  time  to  count  the  people.  A  good  investment?  Why,  it's  the 
best  in  the  world.  This  thing  gets  $250  a  month!  But  it's  hard  money.  It  has 
to  be  watched  like  a  hawk.  It's  hard  to  make  them  pay.  When  white  people 
come  in  they  cause  trouble.  They  know  the  law.  Sometimes  they  stay  in  bed 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  59 

and  refuse  to  pay  the  rent.  But  the  Mexicans  can  be  bluffed.  That's  the  only 
way  to  handle  'em.  Bluff  'em!  This  fist  got  hurt  the  other  day  in  putting  a  bluff 
across.  But  it  worked.  The  rent  was  paid. 

And  there  you  are. 

The  public  is  doubtless  interested  in  the  sanitary  equipment  supplied  by 
these  quarters.  More  than  half  a  hundred  families  can  find  sleeping  places — 
such  as  they  are — in  the  corral.  There  were  less  than  one  dozen  closets  for  the 
use  of  the  entire  community.  They  were  built  side-by-side  in  groups  of  two,  and 
were  of  the  ordinary  flushing  type,  built  after  a  crude  and  sturdy  pattern  to 
withstand  the  wear  and  tear  of  careless  treatment.  None  of  the  sinks  was  found 
to  be  clean.  Half  a  dozen  hydrants  in  the  yard  supplied  the  water  for  all  purposes. 

Children  shared  the  yard  with  horses  and  burros.  The  lauer  as  well  as  the 
former  roamed  at  will  over  the  premises,  seeking  a  wisp  of  hay  or  a  grain  of  corn 
that  had  escaped  previous  gleanings.  The  smaller  children  rolled  and  tumbled 
in  the  soft  dirt  which  the  slothful  hoofs  of  the  donkeys  had  pulverized  by  constant 
treading. 

Carrying  a  graphic  mental  picture  of  big  problems  in  the  concrete,  the 
stranger  walks  out  of  the  corral,  mingles  with  the  busy  commercial  traffic  of  the 
street  for  a  moment,  re-enters  his  automobile  and  is  whisked  away  to  the 
Franciscan  missions,  older  by  hundreds  of  years,  but  not  as  dilapidated  nor  "run 
down  at  the  heel"  as  the  habitations  he  has  just  left. 


SAN  ANTONIO  CORRALS  ARE  CALLED, 

BY  SOME,  GILT-EDGED  INVESTMENTS 

(From   Issue   of   Dec.    4.) 

There  are  about  twenty  corrals  in  San  Antonio,  given  over  chiefly  to  the 
shelter  of  Mexicans.  All  do  not  present  the  same  vicious  features,  but  there  is 
no  dissimilarity  in  the  evil  that  comes  from  their  use  as  multiple  houses.  While 
most  of  them  have  been  built  of  wood  and  are  more  or  less  flimsy  affairs  at 
best,  there  are  notable  instances  where  brick  and  even  concrete  have  been  used 
in  thir  construction. 

The  ir.ore  substantial  structures  are.  of  course,  the  best  the  city  provides. 
They  have  as  a  rule  a  larger  supply  of  household  and  sanitary  conveniences 
than  the  inferior  structures  are  equipped  with  and,  renting  for  more  money,  have 
drawn  to  them  a  more  industrious  and  a  more  competent  class  of  tenants. 
They  are  for  the  most  part,  however,  hidden  from  the  street,  and  provide  the 
habitat  of  little  colonies  of  people  too  numerous  to  be  housed  comfortably  or 
even  decently  in  the  limited  space  allowed. 

There  are  large  corrals  and  small  ones,  ranging  in  capacity  from  a  dozen 
or  two  compartments  or  stalls  to  more  than  one  hundred.  Some  of  them  con- 
sist of  large  houses  strung  out  for  many  feet  in  unbroken  continuity  with  but 
thin  board  partitions  between  them.  The  others  are  composed  of  small  rooms, 
affording  but  a  moiety  of  light  and  ventilation  and  not  much  space  for  the 
turning  around  of  many  people. 

As  the  landlord  views  them,  these  corrals  are  "gilt-edged"  investments. 
They  are  kept  up  at  trivial  expense.  The  Mexican  and  the  poorer  white  people 
whom  necessity  sometimes  drives  to  refuge  in  them,  are  not  sticklers  for  looks. 
Nor  do  they  mind  sharing  with  the  rest  of  the  community  tne  meager  water 
and  sanitary  facilities  which  the  premises  afford.  They  are  held  under  tight 
curb  by  the  landlord,  who  watches  his  property  writh  tireless  eyes,  and  are  pre- 
vented by  his  diligent  surveillance  from  injuring  the  property  more  than  natural 
laws  of  deterioration  under  constant  usage  would  excuse.  The  property  is  not 
often  left  exclusively  to  the  tenants'  care.  There  are  too  many  to  reckon  with. 

One's    first    thought    would    be    that    conditions    under    which    these    people 


60  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

live  would  be  productive  of  frequent  fires.  But  this  is  not  the  case.  One  land- 
lord told  the  writer  that  in  his  long  experience  as  the  proprietor  of  a  corral 
but  one  fire  had  occurred  and  that  was  due  to  the  carelessness  or  feebleness  of 
a  sick  man  who  was  occupying  one  of  his  rooms.  It  is  probable  that  the  con- 
stant presence  of  some  one  on  each  of  the  individual  premises  is  the  real  pre- 
ventive of  fire,  but  after  viewing  the  scene  a  search  for  a  reason  will  some- 
times suggest  Jacob  Riis'  story  of  the  New  York  tenement  house  that  was  too 
well  saturated  with  dirt  and  filth  to  offer  a  combustible  body  to  the  flames. 

WHAT  THE  CORRALS   EARN. 

In  dollars  and  cents,  and  considered  solely  from  the  viewpoint  of  the 
owner,  these  institutions  are  undoubtedly  gilt-edged  investments.  They  are 
money-makers — for  the  owners.  But  for  the  city  and  for  society  they  are  about 
the  most  uneconomical  mean-s  of  housing  that  could  be  provided.  They  breed 
an  undesirable  element  of  society,  they  increase  the  police  expense  of  the  city, 
they  make  the  community  more  susceptible  to  the  inroads  of  disease,  and  as  a 
moral  influence  injurious  to  the  general  welfare,  their  potentiality  can  not  be 
estimated.  These  are  conclusions  that  are  inevitable  after  brief  study  of  the 
situation.  Expensive  in  the  long  run  and  detrimental  to  the  city  from  every 
viewpoint,  the  profitable  thing  to  do  would  be  to  abandon  them  for  a  more 
decent,'  a  more  humane,  a  more  righteous  method  of  housing  the  poorer  Mexi- 
cans. Until  this  end  shall  have  been  attained,  San  Antonio  will  continue  to  be 
menaced  by  the  evil  influence  of  the  corral,  for  these  people  must  be  housed 
and  they  drift  to  those  places  that  are  provided  for  them,  and  rarely,  as  a  class, 
concern  themselves  about  making  their  own  lot  in  life,  or  creating  their  own 
homes. 

SAN  ANTONIO  JACALS  ARE  CURIOUS 

ELEMENTS  IN  CITY'S  HOUSING  PROBLEM 

(From    Issue   of   Dec.    5.) 

The  corral  is  not  the  sole  evidence  of  San  Antonio's  housing  problem.  Its 
accompaniment,  the  jacal,  an  Americanized  adaptation  of  the  thatched  hut  of 
Mexico,  has  tenaciously  held  its  own  in  certain  quarters  of  the  town,  despite  the 
aggression  of  the  sky-scraper  and  the  modern  dwelling  upon  its  original  site. 

The  jacal  is  more  or  less  of  a  puzzle.  Topsy,  it  will  be  remembered,  "just 
growed."  The  jacal  evidently  "just  happened."  Manifestly  without  excuse  in  a 
metropolitan  community,  it  is  hardly  without  reason  or  purpose,  for  the  shelter 
it  provides  for  human  beings  is  little  better  than  nothing,  and  the  home  it  makes 
is  no  home  at  all. 

Its  color,  in  the  original,  is  as  variegated  as  Joseph's  coat.  The  various  tints 
of  different  canning  factories  lend  an  irridescent  glitter  to  the  walls  as  long  as 
the  labels  last,  but  with  the  coming  of  the  rain  the  mucilage  dissolves,'  the  paper 
falls  off  and  leaves  a  shack  of  shining  silver.  Oxidizing  under  the  reaction  of  the 
air  and  moisture,  the  hut  soon  assumes  a  mottled  aspect,  changing  eventually 
to  a  deep  brown,  which  in  richness  of  color — but,  alas,  in  that  alone — supplies 
something  in  common  with  the  neat,  pretty  little  homes  that  sometimes  sur- 
round it. 

In  superficial  appearance  it  resembles  some  huge  lamellicorn  beetle  that 
might  have  crawled  out  of  the  tombs  of  the  Pharaohs  after  a  protracted  sleep 
that  made  Van  Winkle's  slumber  nothing  more  than  a  summer  dream.  If  archi- 
tecture named  its  styles  from  bugs  or  animals,  the  jacals  would  surely  be  con- 
signed to  the  scarabaeus  class.  In  fact,  down  in  San  Antonio  they  call  them 
"cockroaches."  But  for  purposes  of  descriptive  nomenclature  there  is  little 
need  of  changing  from  the  scarab  to  the  blatta  oHentalis.  A  beetle  or  a  cock- 
roach conveys  the  same  idea  of  appearance. 

They  are  built  right  on  the  ground  and  are  constructed  of  all  manner  of 
castaway  materials,  in  which,  however,  the  flattened-out  tins  of  gasoline,  coal 
oil  and  tomato  cans  predominate.  They  are  rarely  high,  and  should  a  tall  man 
enter  an  average  adobe  of  this  kind  he  would  in  all  probability  be  compelled 
to  stoop  to  avoid  scraping  his  hat  against  the  cobwebs  on  the  nether  side  of  the 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  61 

roof.  Posts,  procured  either  from  some  near  by  dumping  ground  or  cut  from 
the  mesquite  thickets  around  the  town,  supply  the  props  for  the  structure. 
Where  cracker  boxes  have  been  found  in  abundance  they  have  been  broken  up 
into  boarding  for  wall  coverings.  Where  planks  of  no  kind  or  sort  have  been 
available,  the  city's  trash  piles  have  been  gleaned  for  cans,  the  tins  are  stretched 
around  the  fragile  framework  and  put  on  like  the  foliated  scales  or  wings  of 
the  cockroach,  hence  the  name. 

Sometimes,  when  the  builder  possesses  more  than  ordinary  knowledge  of 
construction,  he  runs  his  roof  to  an  apex,  either  in  the  form  of  a  parallelogram 
or  a  cone,  to  provide  better  security  against  the  rain.  If  he  intends  that  his 
stove  shall  be  indoors,  he  searches  for  abandoned  pieces  of  stovepipe  until  he 
finds  them,  or,  failing  in  that,  he  constructs  a  chimney  from  topless,  bottom- 
less tomato  cans,  eld  buckets  or  any  available  material  that  supplies  the  neces- 
sary cylindrical  shape.  There  is  one  of  tnese  cockroach  houses  that  is  always 
pointed  out  to  the  visitor  as  a  greater  curiosity  than  the  rest  because  of  the  small 
chimney  of  worn-out  washtubs  that  have  been  neatly  articulated  into  something 
of  an  ornamental  design  as  well  as  to  fulfill  a  utilitarian  function. 

MANY    OF   THEM   ARE    FOUND. 

These  houses  are  found  single,  in  groups  and  in  strings  at  various  places  in 
the  Mexican  settlements  of  San  Antonio.  Sometimes  they  consist  of  one  room, 
sometimes  of  more.  Occasionally  one  is  noted  that  is  of  superior  accommo- 
dations. Considerable  time  and  some  money,  perhaps,  were  expended  upon  its 
construction.  All  told,  according  to  dependable  information,  there  are  about 
two  hundred  of  such  shacks  in  the  city,  perhaps  a  few  more.  They  are  built 
upon  ground  that  is  rented  for  a  small  fee,  "or  upon  which  the  occupants  have 
squatted  to  reside  as  long  as  they  may  before  being  ejected.  In  some  instances 
occupants  have  bought  their  own  lots  on  the  basis  of  $i  or  $2  down  and  the 
same  amount  each  week  until  the  cost  price  is  paid,  and  instead  of  building  real 
houses  have  put  up  huts  to  shelter  them  until  better  times  come.  Most  of  them 
are  without  water,  the  domestic  supply  being  obtained  from  "water  merchants" 
of  their  own  race  who  make  their  daily  rounds  of  the  community,  driving  a 
sleepy  burro  hitched  to  a  barrel  on  wheels.  These  merchants  purchase  their 
water  from  the  owner  of  an  artesian  well  and  sell  it  at  a  pretty  large  profit 
gross.  Of  closets  there  are  few,  all  being  of  the  surface  kind. 

The  premises  surrounding  these  jacals  are,  as  a  rule,  clean  and  well  kept. 
It  is  inside  that  dirt  and  disorder  reign  particularly.  As  to  cleanliness  they  are 
shown  to  better  advantage  than  those  of  the  corrals  which  pretend  to  greater 
excellence  as  homes.  The  Mexican's  delight  in  flowers  and  vines  is  cherished 
here,  while  in  the  corrals  it  is  neglected.  Frequently  one'  sees  specimens  of  these 
little  shacks  almost  completely  covered  with  trailing  plants,  and  embowered  in 
china-berry  trees  planted  by  the  builders  or  the  early  occupants.  Flower  beds 
arid  rose  bushes  often  surround  them,  lending  a  piquancy  to  the  scene  that,  while 
apparently  foreign  to  the  entire  scheme  of  things,  gives  the  whole  a  picturesque- 
ness  that  is  genuine  and  unaffected.  Nature  has  done  much  for  the  resident  of 
San  Antonio,  as  every  one  knows  who  has  ever  dwelt  or  visited  there,  and  above 
corrals  and  jacals  alike  stately  trees  outstretch  their  umbrageous  arms  in  bene- 
dictions upon  the  heads  of  the  lowly  who  reside  in  penury  and  in  ignorance  be- 
neath them.  Little  streams  ripple  by  in  which  naked  and  ragged  children  play 
in  the  high  glee  of  innocence,  while  the  quail  call  from  the  thickets  and  the 
mockingbirds  send  forth  their  constant  carols  of  ecstatic  melody.  All,  too, 
within  the  city  limits  of  San  Antonio,  for  the  builders  of  the  town  planned  gen- 
erously and  incorporated  thirty-six  square  miles  within  the  municipal  domain. 

And  nowhere  in  the  Mexican  settlement  is  there  evidence  of  race  suicide. 
There  are  children  everywhere.  Some  wear  clothes,  some  don't.  Those  who 
are  accustomed  to  the  habiliments  of  civilization  are  in  nowise  disposed  to  lord 
it  over  their  less  learned  brothers  and  sisters.  They  are  one  big  family  and  the 
naked  are  as  welcome  at  play  as  the  clothed.  Of  course,  the  coming  of  colder 
weather  makes  garments  necessary  for  bodily  warmth,  but  the  doubtful  modesty 
of  the  Mexican  does  not  suggest  clothes  for  the  little  tots  as  a  means  of  con 
cealment  of  person.  They  are  reserved  for  a  mpre  practical  and  imperative 
purpose. 


64  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

SOCIETY'S  INTEREST  IN  HOUSING 

SHOWN  BY  VOCATIONS  OF  THE  POOR 

(From   Issue   of  Dec.    6.) 

The  effect  upon  San  Antonio  and.  in  a  measure,  upon  Texas,  of  bad  housing 
in  the  Mexican  settlements  of  that  city  is  readily  perceived  through  a  study  of 
habits  that  are  necessarily  formed  under  adverse  conditions  of  living,  and  is 
emphasized  by  a  little  knowledge  of  these  occupations  of  the  people  who  are 
involuntarily  subjected  to  them. 

Human  beings  can  with  difficulty  be  clean  and  sanitary  in  their  everyday 
life  in  a  San  Antonio  corral.  A  half  a  dozen  hydrants,  located  in  the  yard,  are 
certainly  not  conducive  to  cleanliness  among  fifty  or  more  families  who  have  no 
other  source  of  water  supply.  It  is  a  long  way  to  the  water  usually,  and  the 
trips  with  a  bucket  or  two  necessary  to  fill  a  bathtub  are  fatiguing  and,  from 
the  .viewpoint  of  many  people,  perhaps,  are  hardly  worth  the  while.  Besides, 
there  are  no  bathtubs.  Whatever  bathing  is  done  is  customarily  self-administered 
or  performed  by  mother  for  child  in  a  dishpan  or  some  other  commodious  vessel 
the  kitchen  equipment  may  afford. 

The  city's  system  of  collecting  and  disposing  of  garbage  is  theoretically 
unobjectionable,  but  in  practical  application  it  is  faulty.  The  trash  and  garbage 
boxes  with  wrhich  corrals  are  provided  are  not  cleaned  with  frequency  sufficient 
tc  keep  in  a  condition  of  minimum  offensiveness  the  odious  and  unsightly 
accumulation  of  refuse  which  these  multiple  houses  throw  out.  Kitchen  drainage, 
there  is  none,  except  through  the  open  door  or  window  to  the  yard. 

The  use  of  one  closet  by  ten  families  or  more  is  hardly  a  decent  nor  a  sanitary 
custom.  Yet  it  is,  irremediable  under  prevailing  conditions  in  many  places.  Its 
most  successful  collateral  function,  doubtless,  is  the  dissemination  of  disease. 

Herded  together  like  cattle,  these  people  necessarily  are  the  prey  of  contagion 
once  it  inserts  its  tentacles  into  the  fabric  of  their  community  life.  What  one 
contracts,  the  others  catch  from  him.  Living,  too  many  in  a  room,  enhances  the 
opportunity  of  infection  or  pestilence,  and  intensifies  the  dirt.  There  is  no  relief 
but  separation.  But  there  is  little  need  to  exploit  these  things.  They  are  self- 
evident  truths. 

Passing  through  a  typical  corral  of  San  Antonio  a  visitor  in  the  fall  of  the 
year  will  note  here  and  there  little  piles  of  nutshells,  and,  perhaps,  he  will  see  a 
group  of  unkempt  Mexicans  huddled  over  a  sack  of  nuts  at  frequent  intervals 
along  the  way,  deftly  picking  the  rich,  juicy  kernels  from  the  hulls.  Repetition 
ct  this  sight  will  usually  provoke  inquiry,  upon  which  it  is  learned  that  a  large 
number  of  the  occupants  of  the  corral  and  of  the  other  institutions  of  the  kind  in 
the  city,  make  their  livings  at  that  time  of  the  year  by  shelling  pecans  for  the 
market.  The  nuts  are  sold  to  them  upon  a  stated  basis,  usually  controlled  by 
the  market  price,  and  they  are  bought  back,  after  shelling,  at  a  slight  advance 
which  provides  the  shellers'  wages. 

Engaged  in  this  occupation,  the  Mexicans  do  not  relieve  themselves  of  the 
sordid  conditions  that  normally  surround  them.  They  can't.  They  are  bound 
to  them,  and  when  pecan  shelling  time  comes  they  bring  the  nuts  to  their  homes 
in  the  corrals,  and  sitting  down  amid  the  usual  squalor  of  the  place,  proceed 
stolidly  with  their  occupation.  Sometimes  the  shelled  nuts  remain  in  little  piles 
on  the  floors  until  ready  to  be  resold.  Sometimes  there  are  receptacles  for  them. 
At  all  times  it  is  a  safe  venture  that  the  Mexican's  house  is  just  as  dirty  as  it  was 
the  week  before,  and  that  the  Mexican,  himself,  has  made  no  more  frequent  trips 
to  the  hydrant  in  the  yard  to  wash  his  hands  than  occasion  required  in  the  pist. 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  6s 

HAVE  BECOME  POPULAR  DELICACY. 

Shelled  pecans  are  becoming  a  popular  delicacy.  Most  of  the  bars  in  San 
Antonio  are  equipped  with  catch-penny  machines  from  which  drop  a  handful  of 
salted  nuts  when  a  nickel  is  inserted  in  the  slot.  Candies  of  all  sorts  contain  the 
kernels,  of  pecans  as  their  chief  ingredients.  Cakes  and  puddings  are  made  from 
them.  They  are  used  in  San  Antonio.  They  are  sent  throughout  the  State,  and 
even,  it  is  said,  large  manufacturing  concerns  of  other  States  are  in  the  market 
to  buy  them  for  a  variety  of  uses. 

And  most  of  them   come .     Well,  it   would   not  be   accurate   to   say  that 

most  of  them  come  from  the  hands  of  residents  of  San  Antonio's  corrals  because 
the  statement  could  not  be  positive  in  the  absence  of  unimpeachable  information. 
But  suffice  it  to  say  that  a  great  many  of  them  do  come  from  those  very  places — 
places  which  if  once  visited  may  have  the  effect  of  changing  one's  taste  for  a 
very  succulent  confection,  if  he  be  normally  impressionable. 

Then,  there  is  the  candy-maker.  The  silent  vendor  of  San  Antonio's  Mexican 
dulce — a  delicacy  that  is  pleasing  to  anyone  with  a  sweet-tooth — usually  hails 
from  a  corral.  If  not  that,  then  from  a  jacal. 

And  the  tamale  merchant,  too. 

Just  pause  to  think  that  the  tamales  one  may  purchase  on  the  street  came 
from  that  very  same  pot  in  yonder  corral  which  boiled  sullenly  amid  the  foul  air 
and  the  filth  of  the  room  that  was  forced  to  serve  more  than  a  culinary  purpose 
in  taking  care  of  an  overcrowded  family.  You  saw  a  grimy  senora  'rolling  out 
tortillos  upon  a  heavy  stone  base  which  she  had  placed  in  front  of  her  on  the 
gallery  of  one  corral.  You  also  looked  into  her  living  room  and  the  kitchen  that 
went  with  it  and  viewed  in  silent  wonder  the  dirty  appearance  and  general 
disorder  that  reigned  in  the  two  little  rooms.  Perhaps  this  shambling  vendor  is 
the  lord  and  master  of  that  humble  abode  and  these  the  wares  his  spouse 
prepared  for  sale. 

However,  the  risk  one  takes  in  matters  of  this  kind  is  not  peculiar  to  San 
Antonio.  It's  just  as  great  in  other  places  where  Mexicans  are  housed  together 
like  sheep.  In  one  of  the  smallest  and  dirtiest  places  in  Dallas  visited  by  the 
writer  he  discovered  a  white  woman  spreading  cornmeal  on  corn-shucks  while  a 
Mexican  man  with  deft  but  dirty  fingers  "chucked"  in  the  meat  "filling"  and 
rolled  the  whole  thing  up  like  a  cigarette  to  put  away  in  the  pot  to  boil.  Should 
the  whole  scene,  premises,  workers  and  all,  come  to  one  in  a  dream  he  would 
surely  wake  up  the  next  morning  with  the  recollection  of  a  nightmare. 

In  this  does  the  public  suffer  immediately  from  neglect  of  the  Mexican 
population  that  is  found  everywhere  in  Texas.  Without  assistance  from  the 
people  in  the  getting  of  homes,  these  timid,  helpless  foreigners  must  shift*  for 
themselves  and  make  the  most  of  a  bad  situation.  They  are  usually  of  the  class 
that  is  on  friendly  terms  with  dirt,  and  when  they  find  themselves  witnoot 
facilities  for  being  clean,  and  are  compelled  by  necessity  to  live  in  hovels  unfit 
for  human  habitation,  they  degenerate  into  a  condition  of  uncleanliness  that 
seems  to  make  them  happier  as  it  intensifies.  In  the  meantime,  the  public  which 
knows  nothing  about  their  places  of  abode  and  labor,  and  apparently  cares  less, 
continues  to  buy  their  goods  and  consume  them  with  all  the  attendant  risks  cf 
contact  and  consumption. 


68  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

LAUDABLE  PROJECTS  UNDER  WAY  TO 

GIVE  MEXICANS  BETTER  HOUSING 

(From   Issue   of  Dec.   7.) 

It  was  written  in  the  beginning  of  this  series  of  articles  that  housing 
conditions  surrounding  the  working  people  of  San  Antonio  were  at  once  the  best 
and  the  worst  disclosed  by  an  investigation  of  the  conspicuous  cities  of  Texas. 
Evil  conditions  that  prevail  there  have  been  shown  and  now,  turning  the  survey 
into  more  encouraging  scenes,  an  effort  will  be  made  to  reveal  a  picture  of 
conditions  of  housing  that  conform  largely  to  a  more  exacting  program  of 
scientific  and  sanitary  construction,  location  and  equipment  of  dwellings  for  the 
use  of  the  laboring  people. 

A  brief  visit  to  the  newer  additions  of  the  city  that  are  given  over  largely 
to  the  residence  of  Mexicans  soon  suggests  the  conclusion  that  the  occupants  of 
the  corrals  and  jacals  are  of  the  lower  peon  class  of  Mexicans  and  want  nothing 
better,  or  they  are  temporarily  situated  financially  under  adverse  circumstances 
that  prevent  them  from  bettering  their  condition  of  living,  or,  finally,  they  are 
unable  to  procure  homes  amid  superior  environments  because  of.  an  insufficient 
supply.  One  of.  or  all  these  reasons,  may  enter  the  explanation  of  corral  or  jacal 
life.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  whatever  inherent  similarity  may  prevail  between  the 
occupant  of  the  corral  and  the  resident  of  the  individual  Mexican  home,  that 
common  attribute  or  characteristic  is  lost  in  the  transition  from  the  stall  to  the 
cottage,  in  so  far  as  its  manifestation  in  outward  appearances  and  apparent 
inward  contentment  is  concerned.  The  family  in  the  cottage  obviously  .has  a 
purpose  in  life  and  reveals  it;  the  family  in  the  corral  shows  plainly  that  it 
merely  exists. 

Several  years  ago.  enterprising  business  men,  who  possessed  at  the  same 
time  a  philanthropic  impulse,  conceived  the  idea  of  giving  the  Mexican  population 
of  San  Antonio  something  it  had  long  stood  in  need  of — assistance  from  the 
public  and  a  fighting  chance.  They  took  in  the  situation  at  a  glance  in  all  its 
uninviting  details.  Spread  out  before  them  was  a  scene  upon  which  moved 
thousands  of  working  Mexicans  whose  homes  were  hovels,  crowded  into  space 
too  small  to  accommodate  them  comfortably  or  decently.  In  Mexico  they  live 
that  way,  to  be  sure,  but  these  business  men  felt  that  they  should  find  conditions 
more  beneficial  and  satisfying  in  the  United  States.  The  thing  to  be  done  was  to 
rid  the  city  of  corrals  and  huts  by  providing  individual  homes  for  their  residents 
upon  a  basis  of  purchase  or  rental  not  out  of  reach  of  the  small  wage-earner.  Of 
course,  the  primary  purpose  behind  this  project  was  that  of  revenue,  but  at  the 
same  time  the  intention  was  to  make  the  profits  of  the  enterprise  represent  a  just 
reward  for  philanthropic  labor.  Two  promoters  of  an  enterprise  of  this  kind — 
both  young  men.  graduates  of  the  University  of  Texas,  by  the  way — told  the 
writer  that  they  were  materially  assisted  in  launching  their  undertaking  by 
philanthropic  people  of  means  who  appreciated  the  work  for  its  humanitarian 
value  rather  than  because  of  its  opportunity  as  a  business  venture. 

Therefore,  out  of  this  movement  having  for  its  purpose  first,  the  making  of 
money,  secondly  the  performance  of  a  philanthropic  work,  there  grew  a  large 
and  profitable  business,  soliciting  chiefly  the  patronage  of  Mexicans.  Land  was 
purchased  within  the  city  limits  not  too  far  away  from  the  business  districts  to 
allow  the  transportation  problem  to  intrude  itself  as  a  serious  obstacle.  This 
property  was  cut  up  into  lots  ranging  in  dimensions  from  thirty-five  to  forty 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  69 

feet  wide  by  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  feet  long.  Anyone  desiring  a  home  of 
his  own  can  have  one  in  this  territory  for  the  payment  of  &  small  sum,  a  dollar 
or  two  dollars,  down,  and  the  same  amount  weekly  thereafter  until  the  entire 
•debt  shall  have  been  liquidated.  A  house  will  be  built  for  him.  It  is  a  small 
house,  to  be  sure,  the  size  and  cost  of  construction  varying  little  from  a  common 
standard.  But  he  wants  a  small  house.  It  is  the  only  house  he  can  afford.  And 
he  takes  possession  immediately  upon  its  construction  or  the  payment  of  the 
first  installment,  happy  and  content  in  the  consciousness  that  he  has  a  home, 
.and  ambitious,  generally,  to  make  of  it  the  very  best  that  he  can. 

WHAT  THE  HOUSES  COST. 

Houses  of  this  kind  are  built  in  San  Antonio  at  a  cost  ranging  from  $180  to 
$300,  the  entire  investment  for  lot  and  house  rarely  exceeding  $400  to  $500,  the 
idea  being  to  require  weekly  payments  that  will  liquidate  each  obligation  in  not 
more  than  five  years.  The  system  necessitates  thousands  of  accounts,  but  they 
are  not  too  much  trouble  to  keep.  Then,  they  are  profitable. 

Various  types  of  houses  are  constructed.  There  are  three-room,  four-roDm 
and  five-room  cottages.  Some  of  them  are  the  old-style  shotgun  houses,  with 
rooms  opening  one  into  the  other  in  a  direct  line.  Others  are  more  satisfactory 
in  architecture,  being  built  with  something  more  in  mind  than  simply  the  idea 
of  providing  shelter  from  the  rain  and  protection  from  the  sun.  Most  of  them 
are  equipped  with  running  water,  but  as  yet  sewerage  connections  have  not  been 
made  owing  to  the  limitations  of  the  city's  system.  Outside  closets,  therefore, 
are  necessary. 

The  other  prominent  deficiency  in  this  house  is  its  lack  of  bathtubs.  Few 
are  constructed  with  bathroom  facilities.  They  will,  perhaps,  come  in  time. 

However,  despite  these  structural  defects  the  individual  house  is  proving  the 
solution  of  the  Mexican  housing  question  in  that  it  affords  the  family  freedom 
and  privacy.  The  family  has  its  own  premises  to  do  with  what  it  pleases.  It  is 
not  crowded  and  need  not  suffer  the  moral  and  physical  injuries  attending  the 
congestion  of  houses  or  people  within  them. 

While  they  are  not  large,  the  lots  are  ample  to  the  needs  of  the  home  and 
provide  space  for  flower  beds  and  vegetable  gardens  and  opportunity  for  the 
children  to  romp  and  play  without  undue  restraint. 

Owners  of  some  of  these  houses  have  made  them  little  bowers  of  beauty. 
A  morning's  ride  through  any  of  these  additions  will  disclose  here  and  there  a 
$200  cottage  wearing  at  first  glance  the  appearance  of  a  $1,000  house  merely 
because  its  setting  of  lawn  and  flowers  shows  it  off  to  superior  advantage.  Some 
of  the  houses  are  almost  covered  with  vines  and  trailing  roses.  Others  are 
fragrant  in  envelopes  of  honeysuckle.  Great  red  dahlias  or  kindred  blooms  lend 
brilliance  to  the  color  scheme,  and  even  the  tiny  violet  finds  affectionate  care 
from  some  member  of  the  household.  For  its  size,  and  considering  its  cost,  one 
of  the  prettiest  yards  in  San  Antonio  surrounds  a  $200  shotgun  house.  In  short, 
the  evolution  of  this  plan  has  made  homes  where  homes  did  not  exist  and  for 
people  who,  many  thought,  had  no  idea  of  a  home  other  than  in  its  conception  of 
a  place  to  sleep  and  eat. 

MANY  RESIDENTS   OWN  THEIR  HOMES. 

Housing  evils  have  not  noticeably  intruded  themselves  into  the  homes  of  the 
American  working  people  of  the  city.  There  are  a  great  many  individually  owned 
homes  which,  for  the  most  part,  are  kept  in  admirable  condition.  Natural 


70  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

advantages  contribute  much  to  the  ease  of  beautification  in  San  Antonio,  and 
these  have  been  made  use  of  universally  by  home-owners,  both  rich  and  poor 
alike.  The  lots  upon,  which  houses  are  built  range  from  forty  to  fifty  feet  and 
sometimes  more  in  width  and  are  as  a  rule  about  twice  as  long  as  they  are  wide. 
The  city's  sewer  system  is  not  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the  people,  but  where 
mains  are  accessible  connection  is  compulsory  under  municipal  ordinance.  There 
is  very  little  evidence,  indeed,  of  house  congestion,  and  so  far  as  the  writer's 
information  goes  there  is  but  a  paucity  of  overcrowding  of  people  among  the 
homes  of  the  American  working  people. 

Many  of  the  negroes  of  San  Anton;o  are  housed  in  the  ordinary  shotgun 
cottage,  and  there  is  more  or  less  overcrowding  indoors,  but  as  a  rule  the  houses 
are  pretty  well  separated  one  from  the  other.  They  are  erected  upon  lots  of  the 
usual  dimensions.  There  are  here  and  there,  and  quite  frequently,  too,  shanties 
and  hovels  in  the  last  stages  of  delapidation,  but  they  can  not  be  said  to  be  the 
rule.  The  negro  is  universally  an  occupant  who  is  hard  on  his  house  in  his  use 
of  it.  He. is  not  inherently  cleanly  and  is  disposed  to  enjoy  himself  under 
conditions  of  filth  that  are  revolting  to  the  average  white  person.  The  negro 
quarters  of  San  Antonio,  among  the  lower  classes,  evidence  this  trait  of  character. 
The  yards  are  littered  with  trash.  Where  there  are  no  sewer  connections,  even 
for  kitchen  drainage,  the  back  yard  or  the  front,  it  doesn't  matter  much  which  it 
is,  frequently  gets  the  dishwater.  There  are  in  San  Antonio,  however,  many 
well-to-do  negroes  who  own  their  own  homes  and  maintain  their  premises  in  a 
pleasing  condition  of  orderliness  and  sanitation. 

All  in  all,  it  might  be  well  to  say  that  if  the  city  of  San  Antonio  would  extend 
its  sewer  mains,  do  away  with  the  outside  closet,  devote  more  attention  to  its 
streets,  bring  to  bear  greater  pressure  upon  its  force  of  sanitary  inspectors,  it 
would  then  find  its  housing  problem  confined  to  the  Mexicana  population  almost 
exclusively.  The  corral  may  go  eventually  under  the  aggression  made  upon  it 
by  business  projects  now  looking  to  the  better  housing  of  the  Mexicans,  but  it 
seems  to  have  a  pretty  tight  hold  on  the  situation.  It,  too,  would  more  speedily 
disappear  were  it  to  receive  municipal  attention.  The  huts  and  hovels  must 
ultimately  make  room  for  houses,  and  as  the  transition  takes  place  they  will 
probably  be  pushed  farther  and  farther  out  until  they  are  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  city. 

DARK  ROOMS  OF  HOUSTON  FORM  SMALL 
BUT  IMPORTANT  PART  OF  ITS  PROBLEM 

(From    Issue   of   Dec.    8.) 

It  was  in  Houston  that  the  writer  saw  for  the  first  time  during  his  recent 
investigations  that  architectural  iniquity  known  as  the  dark  room.  It  presents 
a  phase  of  the  general  housing  problem  that  is  not  widely  manifest  in  Texas, 
but  its  simple  presence,  restricted  though  it  be  to  remote  and  infrequent 
instances,  is  by  housing  experts  regarded  as  the  sinister  foreshadowing  of 
menacing  evils  that  must  be  eradicated  at  once  to  preserve  future  conditions 
against  irreparable  injury. 

Once  the  dark  room  .takes  firm  hold,  its  elimination  becomes  a  matter  of 
vast  expense  and  indefatigable  effort.  New  York's  experience  proves  this,  for 
despite  the  time  and  money  expended  in  behalf  of  crusades  to  remove  this  social 
bane  there  are  yet  in  the  metropolis  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  rooms  in 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  71 

which  human  beings  live  without  natural  light  or  ventilation  save  that  which 
comes  through  the  one  door  that  gives  access  to  a  passage  way  equally  dark 
and  gloomy. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  series  of  articles  the  statement  was  made  that  if 
there  were  dark  rooms  in  Texas  the  writer's  investigation  had  failed  to  elicit 
information  concerning  their  whereabouts.  This  statement  at  that  time  was  true. 
The  time  allowed  for  the  investigation  was  not  sufficient,  as  one  would  quickly 
surmise,  to  permit  a  house-to-house  inspection  throughout  the  larger  cities  of 
the  State,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  very  systematic  and  complete  survey  of 
the  city  of  Houston,  made  recently  by  the  social  service  committee  of  the  Men 
and  Religion  Forward  Movemeent,  such  information,  perhaps,  would  have  been 
long  in  coming  to  the  public. 

Under  the  immediate  direction  of  J.  P.  Kranz,  secretary,  this  committee 
instituted  and  completed  a  careful  survey  of  the  city  of  Houston,  particularly 
with  respect  to  housing  conditions  prevailing  there.  Assisting  Mr.  Kranz,  who 
is.  himself,  a  social  worker  of  many  years'  experience  in  the  North.  East  and 
South,  were  a  corps  of  experts  whose  training  has  been  especially  in  the  field 
of  social  surveying.  A  house-to-house  inspection  was  made  of  those  sections 
of  the  city  given  over  largely  to  the  residences  of  working  people,  and  toward  the 
end  of  the  survey  the  social  workers  reported  the  information  to  headquarters 
that  they  had  discovered  a  dozen  or  more  dark  rooms  in  some  of  the  town's 
multiple  residences.  This  information  Mr.  Kranz,  himself,  set  out  to  verify  and 
courteously  permitted  the  writer  to  accompany  him.  A  few  moments'  walk  from 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Building  brought  the  party  to  the  first  house  indicated  by  the 
surveyors.  In  a  trice  Mr.  Kranz  had  opened  the  doors  of  dark  rooms  embodying 
every  essential  detail  of  that  housing  evil;  and  their  pernicious  influence  was 
aggravated,  as  the  case  is  frequently,  if  not  usually  found  to  be,  by  a  degree  of 
overcrowding  which,  in  the  absence  of  actual  observation,  is  largely  inconceivable. 

The  building  was  a  large  workingman's  rooming  house,  situated  almost 
within  the  heart  of  the  city.  It  occupied  a  position  between  two  structures 
equally  large,  the  lower  floor  being  devoted  to  commercial  purposes,  the  upper 
t.j  the  housing  of  dozens  of  tenants.  Climbing  a  long  flight  of  stairs  the  visitors 
found  themselves  in  a  small  hall  or  reception  room  that  opened  into  a  passage 
way  which  ran  the  full  length  of  the  building.  Rooms  opened  to  this  hall  as  do 
the  rooms  of  hotels.  Everything  was  dark,  the  faint  glimmerings  of  light  that 
flickered  through  an  overhead  transom  being  insufficient  to  illuminate  the  hall. 
A  heavy,  sickening  incense  filled  the  air.  It  was  not  the  fumes  of  burning 
disinfectants.  The  dark  surroundings  and  faint  pallor  of  whitewashed  walls 
suggested  a  place  uncanny — an  appropriate  vestibule  for  the  swinging  of  heathen 
censers  to  cruel,  unsympathetic  and  voracious  gods. 

The  visitors  proceeded  down  the  dark  hall  and  opened  the  first  door  on  the 
left.  Abyssmal  blackness  met  the  eye.  Not  a  faint  ray  of  light,  not  an  object 
could  be  seen.  Gradually  becoming  accustomed  to  the  darkness  the  vision  began 
to  penetrate  the  gloom  of  the  room  and  discern  blacker  things  which  the  light  of 
a  match  later  showed  to  be  beds.  They  were  double  beds  and  there  were  three 
of  them.  The  room  was,  perhaps,  eighteen  feet  long  by  ten  or  twelve  feet  wide. 
The  ceiling  and  walls  were  plastered — bleak  and  bare.  The  door  through  which 
entrance  was  obtained  was  the  only  outlet  of  the  room.  Not  a  window  nor  a 
transom  nor  a  ventilator  could  be  perceived.  A  threadbare  rug  partially  covered 
the  floor.  Three  chairs  completed  the  furnishings.  Not  a  washstand,  a  bureau 


72  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

nor  a  mirror  was  in  view.  A  single  incandescent  light  was  suspended  from  the 
ceiling  by  a  corded  wire.  And  above  the  damp  and  musty  odor  that  pervaded 
the  room  arose  the  pungent  scent-particles  of  that  strange  aroma  which  filled' 
the  hall. 

The  next  room  was  visited,  then  another  and  another.  All  were  dark.  All 
depended  for  light  and  ventilation  upon  the  doors  that  opened  into  the  hall. 
None  had  even  a  window  opening  to  the  adjoining  room.  None  had  a  complete 
equipment  of  furniture.  All  had  three  double  beds  apiece.  And  to  them  all  that 
heavy,  sickening  perfume  had  permeated. 

The  rooms  on  one  side  of  the  house  were  dark — every  one  of  them.  An 
airshaft  on  the  opposite  side  saved  the  compartments  of  that  part  of  the  building 
from  being  entirely  dark.  But  the  light  and  ventilation  it  gave  were  meag?r. 
These  rooms  were  hardly  more  desirable  than  the  others. 

In  the  rear  of  the  hall  was  found  the  sink  at  which  the  water  supply  was 
procured.  Near-by  was  the  toilet,  inadequately  partitioned  off  from  the  hall. 
With  those  the  list  of  conveniences  ended. 

'  The  mistress  of  the  house  shortly  appeared  on  the  scene,  and  immediately 
cleared  up  the  mystery  of  the  incense. 

'    "I  burn  that,"  she  said,  "to  get  rid  of  the  bad  odors  that  arise  from  so  many 
people  sleeping  in  the  house." 

She  held  out  a  handful  of  small  aromatic  crystals  which  she  took  from  her 
apron  pocket. 

"Why  don't  you  fumigate  with  disinfectants?"  she  was  asked. 

She  didn't  know  what  to  disinfect  with,  she  said.  No  one  had  ever  told  her, 
and  thinking,  perhaps,  that  the  infection  was  removed  when  the  smell  had  gone, 
she  had  done  the  best  thing  she  could  to  protect  her  house  from  contagion. 
Advised  as  to  what  to  do.  she  thanked  her  informant  effusively  and  promised  to 
try  the  new  method  at  once  and  abandon  the  use  of  her  makeshift  censers. 

Yet.  this  woman's  house  was  clean.  It  was  free  of  superficial  dirt,  anyway. 
The  coverings  of  the.  beds  in  the  rooms  that  were  viewed  were  neatly  spread  iml 
the  floors  appeared  to  have  been  thoroughly  swept.  The  meager  furnishings 
were  arranged  with  due  regard  for  order.  There  were  no  evidences  of 
shiftlessness  on  the  part  of  the  proprietor.  She,  as  well  as  her  hapless  roomers, 
was  the  victim  of  thoughtless  construction  and  unsanitary  arrangement  of  fhe 
house  in  which  she  lived.  Her  efforts  to  do  her  duty  as  the  matron  of  a  lodging 
house  were  established  by  her  persistent,  though  ineffectual  use  of  incense  as  a 
means  of  preventing  disease.  She  merely  needed  instruction  and  an  adequate 
house  to  relieve  her  lodgers  of  their  pernicious  environment. 

This  house  with  its  dark  rooms  is  typical  of  other  conditions  in  Houston 
though  they  are  not  of  frequent  occurrence.  And  it  is  perhaps  typical  of 
conditions  in  other  cities  of  Texas  though  nowhere  else  were  dark  rooms  seen 
on  the  writer's  tour  of  investigation.  It  is  probable  that  in  the  absence  of  a 
house-to-house  canvass,  such  as  was  made  by  the  social  service  committee  in 
Houston,  nothing  but  the  merest  accident  would  reveal  them.  Hidden  away  in 
remote  places,  and  existing  doubtless  only  in  small  numbers,  they  are  difficult 
to  find.  This  is  one  of  the  hopeful  features  of  the  housing  problem  as  it  is 
affected  by  houses  of  such  construction.  It  can  be  solved  immediately  and 
prevented  from  arising  again  simply  by  a  process  of  legislation.  If  landlords 
hereafter  are  permitted  to  construct  houses  for  rental  purposes  without  first 
having  conformed  to  definite  legal  provisions  in  their  plans,  dark  rooms  may  be 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  73 

expected  to  grow  in  number.  If  lodging  houses  shall  be  constructed  without 
rtgard  to  light  and  ventilation,  and  every  available  space  shall  be  used  for  rental 
purposes,  there  will  be  no  means  of  preventing  the  occurrence  of  dark  rooms.  If 
the  bigger  houses  of  the  rich  are  permitted  to  become  the  made-over  tenements 
of  the  poor,  greed,  necessity  and  false  economy  will  conspire  to  increase  the 
frequency  of  dark  rooms.  For  it  is  unquestionably  a  simpler  task  to  build  houses 
with  windows  in  every  room  than  it  is  to  compel  their  installation  after  the  house 
shall  have  been  erected. 

The  dark  room  requires  no  condemnation  other  than  a  complete  under- 
standing of  what  it  is.  That  conveyed  to  the  public,  the  dark  room  then  become? 
its  own  aggressive  enemy. 


OVERCROWDING  IN  HOUSTON  IS  ONE  OF 

CITY'S  IMPORTANT  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS 

(From   Issue   of   Dec.    9.) 

Houston,  as  every  city  that  has  real  housing  problems,  is  overcrowded  in 
parts.  That  is,  residences  are  made  to  accommodate  too  many  occupants  to  pro- 
mote conditions  conducive  to  health  and  morality,  and  the  houses,  themselves, 
are  built  too  close  together  to  provide  ample  area  for  adequate  sanitation,  privacy, 
quiet  and  the  home  playground  that  should  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  children. 

To  determine  where  crowding  ends  and  overcrowding  begins,  is  something 
of  a  difficult  undertaking.  The  best  authorities  on  housing  and  sanitation  declare 
that  there  can  be  no  fixed  standards  by  which  these  evils  shall  be  guaged,  because 
surrounding  conditions  often  exert  determining  influences  rather  than  does  the 
bare  fact  of  so  many  people  on  so  much  ground  or  in  so  many  rooms.  For  an  example 
it  can  not  in  justice  be  required  that  an  acre  of  ground  shall  never  accommodate 
residents  in  excess  of  200  or  300  or  500.  The  evil  of  overcrowding  depends  rather 
upon  how  they  are  accommodated  than  upon  the  number  of  people  residing  on  an 
acre  of  land.  Hundreds  of  persons  may  live  in  the  tall  hotels  of  the  country, 
occupying,  perhaps,  no  more  ground  base  than  one  acre  or  thereabouts,  but  no 
one  could  justly  describe  conditions  prevailing  within  the  hotels  as  overcrowded. 
Lawrence  Veiller  writes  in  his  excellent  work  on  "Housing  Reform"  that  he 
does  not  believe  an  arbitrary  standard  may  be  adopted  by  which  overcrowding 
may  be  determined.  "In  some  parts  of  China,"  he  says,  "where  the  number  ot 
people  to  the  acre  is  very  much  less  than  it  is  in  many  parts  of  modern  New  York, 
conditions  of  living  are  infinitely  worse  from  the  point  of  view  of  overcrowding 
and  congestion.  Congestion  and  overcrowding  are  not  to  be 

determined  by  the  number  of  people  living  on  a  given  area  of  land.  The  vital 
question  is  the  distribution  of  such  population,  the  actual  close  proximity  in  which 
people  live." 

In  Houston — and  the  same  is  true  of  Dallas,  Galveston,  San  Antonio  and 
ether  large  cities  of  Texas — conditions  fully  meet  this  definition.  There  is  over- 
crowding of  limited  areas  of  land  with  an  undue  population,  brought  about  by  the 
close  proximity  of  the  houses  in  which  people  live,  resulting  in  congestion,  and 
there  is  also  the  overcrowding  of  rooms  within  the  houses.  As  between  the  two 
there  is  little  choice.  Both  are  baneful  and  pernicious  conditions,  and  when  found 
together,  their  influence  for  evil  augments  in  potency. 

STANDARD  NOT  INFALLIBLE. 

The  standard  of  a  minimum  volume  of  cubic  air  space  has  been  the  only 
medium  adopted  in  this  country  to  determine  room  overcrowding.  In  many 
cities  this  standard  has  been  400  cubic  feet  of  air  for  each  adult  and  200  for  each 
child  under  12  years  of  age  occupying  a  room.  And  yet  this  standard  is  declared 
to  be  of  little  value,  because  adherence  to  it  would  not  necessarily  bring  about 
conditions  of  living  beneficial  to  the  occupants  of  the  room.  The  kind  of  air 
that  is  provided  is  as  vital  as  the  quantity.  And  the  frequency  of  its  renewal  is 


76  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

of  equal  importance.  Mr.  Veiller  says  it  "makes  a  very  great  difference  whether 
the  air  comes  from  a  broad  street  or  from  a  narrow  alley,  from  a  large  backyard 
or  from  a  narrow  airsjjaft." 

It  will  be  necessary  to  cite  but  a  few  illustrations  to  show  the  evils  of  over- 
crowding as  it  prevails  in  Houston  among  the  residences  of  unskilled  working 
people.  There  are  innumerable  instances  of  overcrowding  that  defy  both  the 
sanitary  requirement  of  sufficient  volume  of  air  and  that  of  its  frequent  and 
adequate  renewal. 

In  some  of  the  dark  rooms,  spoken  of  in  a  previous  article,  found  in  Houston, 
provision  is  made  for  the  sleeping  of  six  persons.  The  rooms  are  not  large  rooms, 
containing,  perhaps,  no  more  than  1,500  cubic  feet  of  air.  The  pro-rata  part  of 
that  volume  of  air  to  each  six  occupants  would  be  250  cubic  feet.  That  is  150 
cubic  feet  of  air  below  the  standard  adopted  generally  througpout  the  United 
States.  Well  ventilated,' though  it  might  be,  it  is  plausible  to  assume  that  so  small 
a  quantity  of  air  would  be  insufficient  to  meet  the  requirements  of  health.  But 
well  ventilated — such  rooms  are  not.  Their  only  means  of  ventilation  is  the 
doorway  opening  upon  the  hall  or  to  another  room.  Fresh  air  iuiced  by  pressure 
through  the  hall  would  not  provide  thorough  circulation  to  these  rooms.  They 
are  absolutely  cut  off  from  ventilation  as  well  as  light.  One  may  well  imagine 
how  quickly  the  supply  of  air  be  vitiated  by  the  respiration  of  six  occupants. 

Again,  the  writer  saw  four  large  rooms,  approximately  15x15x8  in  dimensions, 
situated  in  a  direct  line  with  doors  opening  from  one  to  another,  each  with  eight 
single  beds  neatly  arranged  along  the  walls  of  the  room.  Two  windows  were 
cut  in  each  room,  opening  to  a  narrow  airshaft  formed  by  the  proximity  of  another 
building.  Opposite  these  windows  doors  opened  into  other  rooms.  They  were 
customarily  kept  closed  The  volume  of  air  in  each  of  these  sleeping  rooms  was 
reduced  to  about  280  cubic  feet  for  each  occupant.  Its  renewal  was  not  sufficient 
to  the  needs  of  the  residents.  When  cold  weather  comes  there  is  no  ventilation 
at  night.  The  windows  are  kept  closed,  the  doors  are  shut,  and  the  many 
sleepers  are  compelled  to  breathe  throughout  the  night  air  that  is  not  provided  in 
sufficient  volume  to  give  each  hie  full  quota  under  prevailing  standards,  and 
which  is  also  robbed  of  its  purity  by  the  natural  processes  of  respiration. 

OVERCROWDING  IN  SMALL  HOUSES. 

Then,  in  the  smaller  houses  overcrowding  prevails  widely  in  Houston.  Here 
vas  found  a  house,  the  six  rooms  of  which  (one  being  a  kitchen)  contained  thir- 
teen people.  Another  house  of  four  rooms  (one  being  a  kitchen)  provides  accom- 
modations for  thirteen  people.  Still  another  group  of  thirteen  people  were  housed 
in  five  rooms,  one  being,  also,  a  kitchen.  Seven  of  these  residents  were  adults. 
Another  instance  was  found  of  fourteen  persons  (eight  of  them  adults)  living  in 
five  rooms,  one  of  which  was  a  kitchen.  And  still  another  house  of  six  rooms 
(one  a  kitchen)  accommodated  eleven  adults  and  two  children. 

These  are  merely  instances  typical  of  conditions  that  widely  prevail  in 
Houston.  And  they  are  also  typical  of  conditions  in  other  cities  of  the  State. 
Housing  laws  are  lacking  and  there  is  no  legal  prohibition  imposed  upon  the 
landlord  or  the  renter  against  overcrowding  houses  to  the  point  of  injury  to 
health  and  social  standards.  And  yet  the  enactment  of  measures  contemplating 
relief  for  such  conditions  is  a  matter  of  difficulty.  To  this  point  Mr.  Veiller 
rfpvnfps  extended  discussion  in  his  recent  work.  Summarizing  he  say«' 

"No  adequate  method  has  yet  been  devised  of  effectively  preventing  room 
overcrowding.  The  attempts  made  thus  far  have  all  been  in  the  direction  of 
limiting  by  law  the  number  of  people  occupying  a  room  with  reference  to  the 
amount  of  cubic  air  space  in  it.  Unfortunately,  such  a  provision  is  almost  impos- 
sible of  enforcement.  In  order  to  enforce  it,  inspections  must  be  made  at  night. 
It  is  only  then  that  the  lodgers  and  boarders,  the  chief  causes  of  overcrowding, 
are  to  be  found.  To  question  the  tenement  dwellers  in  the  daytime  with  regard 
to  their  practice  of  taking  in  boarders  or  lodgers,  is  to  ask  them  to  convict  them- 
selves, and  such  investigations  are  rbviously  of  little  value.  To  adequately  carry 
on  night  inspections  of  the  homes  of  the  poor  would  require  an  army  of  inspectors. 
It  would  involve,  moreover,  an  invasion  of  the  privacy  of  the  home,  which  is 
repugnant  to  American  institutions.  The  routing  out  of  working-men's  families 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  77 

ifter  midnight  in  order  to  determine  whether  they  have  boarders  or  lodgers 
living  with  them  would  be  intolerable. 

"To  •'cope  with  the  problem  of  overcrowding  and  the  lodger  evil  effectively, 
the  law  should  place  upon  the  landlord  the  responsibility  for  an  undue  number 
of  people  in  his  house,  as  it  has  already  placed  upon  him,  in  the  case  of  women 
of  ill  repute,  responsibility  for  their  character.  In  certain  classes  of  tenements 
the  taking  in  of  lodgers  or  boarders,  except  with  the  written  consent  of  the  land- 
lord, must  be  prohibited  and  the  landlord  must  be  held  responsible  for  any 
departure  from  this  rule.  This  principle  has  not  as  yet  been  recognized  by  any 
American  city,  but  it  is  one  that  must  be  established  if  this  evil  is  to  be  overcome." 

Texas  cities,  therefore,  have  an  opportunity  to  become  pioneers  in  this  field 
of  social  endeavor.  Conditions,  easily  ascertainable  by  persons  interested,  clearly 
demonstrate  the  necessity  for  something  of  the  kind  to  be  done. 


CITY'S  INATTENTION  TO  SURROUNDINGS 
AUGMENTS  HOUSTON'S  HOUSING  PROBLEM 

(From  Issue  of  Dec.   10.) 

Complicating  the  housing  problem  in  Houston — as  the  case  has  proved  to  be 
in  all  the  leading  cities  of  Texas — is  the  city's  own  heedlessness  of  or  inattention 
to  physical  conditions  that  have  arisen  outside  of  the  homes  'from  the  continued 
ignorance  or  neglect  of  the  public.  It  is  true  that  Texas  cities  have  grown  so 
rapidly  during  the  last  few  years  that  they  have  been  virtually  unable  to 
accompany  their  growth  by  adequate  facilities  to  the  proper  living  of  communities 
which  it  is  the  function  of  municipal  government  to  provide.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
for  this  reason  especially  that  public  effort  toward  the  elimination  of  undesirable 
conditions  and  the  extension  of  the  good  should  be  redoubled,  otherwise  control 
may  never  be  acquired  over  certain  phases  of  the  social  problem. 

A  survey  of  the  city  reveals  first  the  inadequacy  of  the  sewer  system.  It 
is  not  co-extensive  with  the  territory  of  the  municipality,  and  where  mains  are 
accessible  to  property,  connection  is  not  always  enforced.  As  a  result  of  this 
there  are  in  Houston  a  large  number  of  surface  closets,  together  with  numerous 
though  isolated  systems  of  cesspools.  There  are  frequent  instances  of  makeshift 
sewers,  used  largely  for  drainage  purposes,  which  have  been  constructed  by  the 
tenants  or  under  theirs  or  the  landlord's  supervision  without  regard  for  sanitary 
regulations.  Pipes  for  such  purposes  lead  from  the  kitchen  overground  to  the 
nearest  ravine  running  into  Buffalo  Bayou.  All  manner  of  liquid  refuse  is 
conveyed  through  them  to  gullies  not  remote  from  the  houses,  there  to  drain 
slowly  to  the  stream  further  away. 

SEWER  .SYSTEM  IS  INADEQUATE. 

.One  illustration  of  this  negligence  of  sewer  regulations  comes  graphically  tc 
mind.  Going  down  a  narrow  cul  de  sac  situated  near  the  bayou  a  turn  through 
a  gate  reveals  two  rows  of  houses  facing  each  other  on  the  bank  of  the  stream, 
a  fence  dividing  them.  One  of  the  rows  is  composed  of  ramshackle  dwellings, 
built  high  upon  stilts  to  give  a  semblance  of  a  common  floor  level.  The  other 
row  comprises  a  number  of;  rather  neat  cottages  erected  upon  ground  that  gives 
many  evidences  of  having  been  made  by  layer  upon  layer  of  the  city's  trash 
and  refuse.  -At -the -end  of  the  property the -bank  of  the  bayou  is  being  filled  in  by 
a  similar  process.  Between  the  stream  and  these  rows  of  houses  is  a  wide  space 
of  ground  devoted  to  the  maintenance  of  horses  and  cattle.  A  rough  system  of 
sewerage  connects  these  dwellings  with — the  horse  lot.  However,  it  is  not  used 


80  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

for  the  removal  of  fecal  wastes.  One  row  of  houses  is  connected  with  a  cesspool 
constructed  under  one  of  the  buildings;  the  other  uses  surface  closets.  The 
surrounding  premises  are  in  bad  condition  from  a  sanitary  viewpoint  and  from 
them  arises  a  decidedly  noisome  odor. 

A  house-to-house  inspection  of  100  dwellings  in  a  certain  part  of  Houston 
was  made.  The  territory  is  by  no  means  the  worst  in  the  city,  inasmuch  as  fortv 
of  the  hous.es  faced  paved  streets,  forty-two  had  cement  sidewalks  and  nine  had 
walks  constructed  of  brick.  Nevertheless,  only  thirty-three  of  these  houses  had 
sanitary  closets.  Seventy-one  had  surface  closets.  The  excess  of  the  total — 
JOG — is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  some  of  the  houses  had  both  sanitary  and 
surface  closets. 

In  this  neighborhood  one  instance  was  found  of  three  families  using  one 
closet,  one  instance  of  four  families  using  the  same  closet,  and  one  instance  of — 
eight.  Likewise,  there  were  discovered  two  instances  of  five  families  using  one 
water  tap  and  one  instance  of  eight  families  depending  upon  one  hydrant  for 
their  water  supply.  Of  course,  they  had  to  go  after  the  water  and  bring  it  home 
in  buckets.  The  number  of  bathtubs  bore  a  more  or  less  constant  ratio  to  the 
number  of  sanitary  sewers.  Most  of  these  houses  were  rental  property,  only 
sixteen  being  owned  by  their  occupants. 

OPEN  GUTTERS  ARE  FREQUENT. 

There  are  many  open  gutters  in  Houston  that  poorly  fulfill  their  function, 
mere  ditches  to  whicn  little  attention  is  apparently  paid.  Weeds  grow  up  and 
interfere  with  the  flow  of  rain  water  and  cause  pools  to  form  and  stagnate, 
affording  ideal  cultures  for  the  propagation  of  mosquitoes.  Eighty  of  the  100 
houses  previously  referred  to  faced  open  gutters  of  this  type,  and  before  twenty- 
one  of  them  stagnant  pools  of  water  were  found.  Conditions  of  the  kind  are 
frequently  found  to  be  in  a  state  of  nuisance. 

And.  perhaps,  more  remarkable  than  anything  in  connection  with  the  survey 
of  this  territory  of  the  city,  was  the  discovery  that  in  not  a  single  instance 
among  these  one  hundred  houses  was  the  municipal  ordinance  regarding  the 
collection  andlcare  of  garbage  complied  with.  The  ordinance  prescribes  a  non- 
leakable  covered  can,  and  these  are  what  was  found:  Forty-one  boxes,  eighteen 
tubs,  four  barrels,  four  tin  cans.  Twenty-six  houses  had  no  receptacle  for 
garbage  whatsoever.  Similarly,  thirty-one  of  these  houses  were  screened;  the 
others  were  not  screened  despite  the  necessity  for  screening  and  the  use  of  other 
methods  of  controlling  the  mosquito  pest  in  the  coast  country. 

In  Houston,  too.  are  found  the  jacals  of  San  Antonio.  There  is  a  row  of 
them  along  the  banks  of  the  Bayou  not  a  remote  distance  from  the  heart  of  ihe 
city.  They  have  been  constructed  of  tins,  sheet  iron,  barrel  staves,  boxes  and 
any  other  available  material  which  the  junk  heaps  of  the  dumping  ground  may 
have  provided.  The  little  shacks  have^  been  in  existence  a  long  time.  One  of 
the  occupants  pointed  to  a  tall  tree  growing  beside  the  door  of  his  hut  and  told 
the  writer  that  he  had  planted  "just  a  little  switch  fifeen  years  ago"  when  he 
took  possession  of  the  site  and  began  the  construction  of  his  hovel.  This  man 
owned  two  of  the  structures,  one  of  which  he  used  for  sleeping  and  the  other 
for  cooking  purposes.  However,  with  the  coming  of  cold  weather  he  closed  up 
his-  sleeping  apartment  and  cooked,  ate  and  slumbered  in  his  crowded  little 
kitchen.  During  a  brief  conversation  this  long-time  resident  told  the  writer  that 
the  city  owned  the  land  on  which  the  shacks  were  built.  No  restrictions  were 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  81 

placed  upon  occupancy.  A  family  could  enter  the  lot  and  build  its  own  dwelling 
place  under  the  common  acceptance,  perhaps,  of  squatters'  rights.  Shacks 
become  vacant  and  soon  are  occupied  again.  The  population  is  more  or  less 
transient — all  but  the  old  timer.  Like  Tennyson's  brook,  tenants  come  and  go, 
but  the  original  settler  goes  on  forever.  The  day  the  writer  visited  this  row  of 
huts  a  Mexican  family  occupied  one  of  them,  a  crippled  white  woman  and  her 
daughter  another,  and  transient  lodgers,  seeking  a  night's  refuge  from  the 
weather,  were  sharing  the  shelter,  such  as  it  was,  of  the  others.  The  old  man 
was  the  only  permanent  dweller  of  the  row. 


AUSTIN  IS  NOT  CONFRONTED  BY  A 

SERIOUS  HOUSING  PROBLEM  AT  PRESENT 

(From  Issue  of  Dec.   11.) 

Of  the  conspicuous  cities  of  Texas  Austin  is  perhaps  the  least  inflicted  with 
housing  troubles.  As  Galveston,  the  city  has  comparatively  few  poor  inhabitants. 
It  is  an  educational  rather  than  an  industrial  or  a  commercial  center,  and  therefore 
it  does  not  offer  the  same  advantages  of  employment  to  working  people  that  are. 
held  out  by  other  cities  of  the  State.  As  a  result  of  this  Austin  has  not  been 
driven  to  the  extremities  of  housing  that  have  followed  industrial  development 
elsewhere,  and  overcrowding  of  homes  and  congestion  of  premises  are  housing 
evils  that  are  comparatively  unknown  in  the  Capital,  although,  to  be  sure,  there 
are  found  here  and  there  isolated  instances  that  serve  to  show  the  tendency  to 
improper  growth  wherever  conditions  arise  in  a  city  that  are  not  under  absolute 
control  of  its  authorities. 

However,  Austin  is  looking  forward  to  considerable  industrial  development 
following  the  completion  of  the  contemplated  dam  across  the  Colorado  River 
above  the  town.  Before  the  first  dam  broke,  about  ten  years  ago,  the  city  was 
on  the  highway  to  success  as  a  manufacturing  center,  inasmuch  as  the  power 
necessary  to  move  the  machinery  of  all  kinds  of  factories  was  provided  in  plenty 
and  at  reasonable  rates.  With  the  breaking  of  the  dam,  blasting  encouraging 
prospects  and  plunging  the  city  into  debt,  the  Capital  entered  a  decade  of 
depression  from  which  it  is  emerging  successfully  and  by  the  mistakes  of  which 
it  seeks  to  profit  in  its  future  activities.  Should  the  dam  be  restored — as  present 
indications  predict — the  leading  citizens  of  the  town  foretell  for  Austin  a  brilliant 
future.  It  will  doubtless  develop  manufactures  as  an  important  part  of  its 
industrial  life.  If  so,  factory  hands  and  their  families  will  come  to  the  city  in 
large  numbers  and  will  want  homes.  If  Austin  fail  to  provide  for  them  in 
advance,  a  few  years  will  suffice  indubitably  to  present  a  housing  problem  as 
difficult  of  solution  as  that  which  confronts  the  other  growing  industrial  centers 
of  the  State.  Thus  far  the  city  has  done  little  municipal  planning  as  the  cause 
and  inspiration  of  its  renaissance — commission  government — has  not  been  in  use 
long  enough  to  bring  about  all  the  betterments  and  improvements  that  are 
contemplated.  Nevertheless,  there  is  need  of  city  planning  at  the  Capital,  and 
in  the  event  of  the  dam's  comoletion  and  the  development  of  manufacturing 
industries  there,  the  necessity  will  manifest  itself  more  vividly  as  the  years  roll  by. 

The  city  is  growing  with  noticeable  rapidity.  In  nowise  is  it  crowded  now 
from  a  housing  viewpoint,  yet  the  encroachment  of  evil  .housing  conditions  is  so 
insidious  and  deceptive  that  it  should  behoove  every  community  that  can  prevent 
undesirable  consequences  to  employ  preclusive  means  rather  than  to  wait  for  the 
coming  of  difficulties  and  irritate  itcelf  by  the  discouraging  task  of  cure. 

SOME  RAMSHACKLE  HOUSES  THERE. 

Perhaps  the  most  noticeable  inadequacy  of  housing  in  Austin  is  the 
ramshackle  condition  of  dwellings  in  the  older  settlements,  together  with  the 
incompleteness  of  the  sewer  system.  Negro  homes  are  as  a  rule  in  poor  condition 
physically  and  ^re  not  maintained  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the 
sanitary  code.  Along  the  banks  of  streams  that  flow  through  the  town  numerous 


82  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

isolated  instances  of  bad  housing  occur,  although  there  are  only  infrequent  cases 
of  collective  evils.  There  are  a  few  groups  of  tenant  houses,  comparatively 
speaking,  that  exhibit  the  evil  of  congested  premises,  but  as  a  rule,  taking  the 
sections  occupied  by  working  people  as  a  whole,  the  houses  are  situated  upon 
large  lots  and  are  not  representative  of  a  sole  desire  to  wring  the  greatest  amount 
of  revenue  out  of  the  smallest  possible  investment. 

The  city's  streets  are  not  good,  save  those  upon  which  the  administration  has 
been  at  work.  One  of  the  prominent  defects  of  the  town  is  its  meager  paving. 
But  the  authorities  have  designed  a  plan  of  improvement  that  is  progressing 
rapidly  in  its  execution,  much  to  the  beautification  of  the  town  as  well  as  to  its 
substantial  betterment.  The  residential  districts  have  not  yet  been  reached  in 
the  working  out  of  this  program  of  civic  improvement.  They  will  be  given 
attention  in  the  due  course  of  progress.  And  with  the  plan  of  street  improvement 
naturally  goes  that  of  extending  the  sewer  system  commensurate  with  the 
territory  of  the  town.  When  this  shall  have  been  done,  surface  outhouses  will 
disappear,  thereby  relieving  the  city  of  the  nuisance  inevitably  attending  limited 
systems  of  sewerage. 

There  are  in  Austin  a  number  of  enterprises  looking  to  the  provision  of 
homes  for  working  people.  These  are  succeeding  as  a  rule,  and  in  their  success, 
if  in  nothing  else  immediately  apparent,  the  growth  and  augmenting  prosperity 
of  the  town  are  shown.  Additions  are  being  opened  on  sites  not  too  remote  from 
the  heart  of  the  business  district  in  which  people  of  limited  means  may  procure 
homes  upon  terms  they  are  able  to  meet.  The  class  of  homes  that  are  filling  up 
these  additions  is  good.  There  is  apparent  an  effort  to  beautify  the  premises  as 
well  as  to  provide  in  the  home  the  more  necessary  elements  of  a  home.  Enter- 
prises of  this  character  have  served  to  increase  the  number  of  homes  that  are 
owned  by  their  occupants — in  the  long  run  the  safe  and  certain  solution  of  the 
housing  problem.  

CROWDING  OF  HOUSES  IS  REDUCED  TO 

A  SCIENCE  IN  CITY  OF  FORT  WORTH 

(From  Issue  of  Dec.  12.) 

In  the  continuous  effort  of  solving  those  problems'  of  housing  which  encroach 
at  first  so  unobtrusively  upon  the  social  arrangement  of  a  city.  Fort  Worth  has 
had  to  a  marked  extent  the  assistance  of  organized  labor.  The  influence  of 
unionism  toward  the  improvement  of  social  conditions,  and  especially  in  its  effect 
upon  means  of  housing  the  working  people  of  restricted  earning  power,  has  been 
exerted  both  directly  and  indirectly,  but  it  is,  perhaps,  due  more  considerably  to 
its  indirect  exercise  that  the  principles  of  proper  housing  have  been  given  wide 
application  among  that  portion  of  the  citizenship  that  depends  for  its  livelihood 
upon  limited  means.  This  is  manifested  in  the  large  proportion  that  union  labor 
bears  to  the  entire  citizenship  and  to  the  whole  body  of  working  people,  and  is 
emphasized  in  the  large  percentage  of  home-owners  among  those  of  small  revenue. 

Ownrship  of  homes  seems  to  be  a  prominent  ambition  among  Fort  Worth's 
working  people,  both  skilled  and  unskilled,  and  where  this  ambition  has  been 
realized  or  is  being  gradually  attained  through  processes  of  thrift,  saving  and 
investment,  there  is  no  evidence  of  a  deep-seated  housing  problem.  Housing 
difficulties  therefore,  in  Fort  Worth,  concern  chiefly  the  negroes  and  the  less 
competent  of  the  unskilled  workmen  who  are  chiefly  foreigners.  It  has  been 
shown  repeatedly  by  extensive  statistics  of  unquestionable  accuracy  that  housing 
problems  arise  and  develop  in  direct  proportion  to  the  ratio  which  rental  property 
of  residential  character  bears  to  the  ownership  of  homes.  And  where  working 
people,  skilled  or  unskilled,  have  acquired  the  habit  of  saving  or  investing  what 
little  they  have  in  the  construction  and  equipment  of  a  home — small  and  spare 
though  it  be — it  is  inevitably  disclosed  that  evil  housing  conditions  are  coming 
in  line  for  ultimate  if  not  immediate  remedy.  The  large  percentage  of  union  labor 
has  reduced  the  ratio  of  unskilled  labor  in  Fort  Worth  and  ha±>  correspondingly 
ameliorated  conditions  of  housing  that  prevailed  hitherto  by  stimulating  ambition 
for  home  ownership  through  an  increased  basis  of  compensation.  This  is  the 
writer's  information  from  several  exalted  and  dependable  sources. 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  83 

CONTRAST  OF  CONDITIONS  IS  VIVID. 

Nptwithstanding  this  condition  of  affairs — the  preponderance  of  union  labor 
and  the  benefits  that  it  has  wrought  working  people  with  respect  to  their  homes — 
the  fellow  at  the  bottom  of  the  social  ladder  has  a  pretty  hard  time  in  Fort 
Worth.  Of  course,  he  has  a  rough  path  to  follow  wherever  he  may  chance  to  be, 
but  the  contrast  between  his  condition  and  that  of  the  chap  just  a  little  higher 
up — on  the  next  rung,  say — was  perhaps  never  more  vividly  revealed  than  it  is  in 
this  thriving  city  by  the  Trinity.  The  operation  of  inexorable  social  laws  has 
been  intensified  in  its  blasting  effect  by  the  intrusion,  at  times,  of  inordinate 
greed,  which  seems  determined  to  sate  itself  even  at  the  expense  of  civic  pride 
and  the  basic  sentiments  of  humanity. 

Crowding  of  houses  has  become  something  of  a  structural  art  in  Fort  Worth. 
It  has  been  reduced  to  the  basis  of  scientific  accuracy.  An  observer  can  not  well 
escape  the  conclusion  that  arrangement  has  been  the  subject  of  repeated 
mathematical  calculations,  the  means  involved  being  the  smallest  expenditure 
possible  under  a  grasping,  usurious  policy  of  business  and  the  end  the  greatest 
housing  capacity  possible  to  a  cold,  mercenary  plan.  No  thought,  apparently,  is 
given  the  tenant;  all  thought  is  to  the  revenue  to  the  landlord  his  occupancy 
will  yield. 

To  build  the  greatest  number  of  houses  possible  to  a  given  area,  entire  city 
blocks  have  been  quartered  by  narrow  alleys  hardly  wide  enough  to  permit  the 
passage  of  a  wagon  drawn  by  a  team  of  horses.  Then,  upon  each  quarter-section 
of  the  block,  rows  of  houses  will  be  erected,  two  of  them  facing  the  street,  two 
of  them  the  alleys.  The  whole  gives  the  appearance  of  portions  of  a  miniature 
city,  with  small  streets  and  small  houses  for  small  people — a  town  like  that  to 
which  the  travels  of  Gulliver  led  him  when  he  stumbled  upon  the  precincts  of  the 
Lilliputians.  There  can  be  no  air — the  houses  are  too  close  together,  and  the 
small  alleys  do  not  provide  sufficient  space  for  proper  renewal.  There  can  be  no 
privacy.  Everybody  knows  what  .his  neighbor  is  doing,  and  if  he  chance  to  retire 
before  everybody  else  in  the  community  has  gone  to  bed.  he  must  be  well  trained 
in  courting  Morpheus  to  slip  off  into  Slumberiand  despite  the  hubbub  surrounding 
him.  A  sick  person,  a  sufferer  of  nervous  diseases,  has  about  three  chances  for 
health  to  ninety-seven  for  insanity,  in  the  midst  of  the  ordinary  nightly  babel  and 
neighboring  entertainments. 

SPECULATOR  ON  THE  SCENE. 

And  in  this  character  of  business  a  peculiar  traffic  has  arisen.  Such  properties 
are  undoubtedly  good  investments.  All  over  Texas  landlords  have  admitted  this 
fact.  They  say  it's  hard  money,  but  good  money,  meaning  that  it  has  to  be 
watched  carefully  to  avoid  its  escape  through  tenants  who  are  given  themselves, 
at  times,  to  methods  of  shrewdness.  Twenty  to  thirty  per  cent  piofit  is  not  an 
infrequent  revenue  derived  from  the  ownership  of  such  property.  But  it  is  not 
always  a  certain,  definite  quantity.  And  when  the  earning  power  of  the  holdings 
is  gauged  by  the  capacity  of  selected  periods  of  the  year — when  the  houses  are 
crowded — it  appears  more  financially  alluring  than  it  really  proves  to  be.  With 
this  knowledge,  houses  have  been  built  in  Fort  Worth  and  efforts  made  to  fill 
them  with  occupants — the  greatest  number  possible  in  order  to  disclose  a 
remarkable  revenue.  The  usual  plan  of  lot  crowding  has  been  followed.  House 
after  house,  house  after  .house,  has  been  placed  upon  a  block — and  filled  with 
tenants  by  the  diligent  effort,  undoubtedly,  of  the  speculator.  Then,  stressing 
the  value  of  the  property  as  a  revenue  earner,  the  speculator  finds  a  credulous 
purchaser  and  disposes  of  it  at  a  figure  based  upon  its  maximum  dividends.  When 
the  purchaser  finds  that  his  property  only  brings  him  20%  a  year,  whereas  it  was 
sold  to  him,  perhaps,  upon  a  reliable  representation  of  30%,  he  exhibits  his 
thorough  appreciation  of  being  "stung"  by  declining  to  keep  it  in  repair,  and 
allows  it  to  run  its  own  course  of  deterioration  to  the  discredit  of  the  city  and 
the  unhappine?s  of  the  tenant. 

This  practice,  it  is  learned,  used  to  prevail  to  a  greater  extent  than  it  does 
now,  although  it  is  yet  more  or  less  in  vogue.  It  is  naturally  frowned  down  upon 
by  legitimate  business  and  is  universally  censured  by  those  who  have  the  welfare 
of  the  city  and  the  prosperity  of  its  people  at  heart.  In  a  conversation  with  the 


*4  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

writer.  Mayor  Davis  caustically  censured  the  principles  of  this  kind  of  business, 
saying  that  it  was  not  only  a  wrongful  policy  judged  by  business  standard*,  but! 
moreover,  it  hampered  the  work  of  the  city  toward  the  elevation  of  the  standards 
of  living  among  its  working  peop'e.  In  its  efforts  to  beautify  the  city  and  make 
it  more  substantial,  the  municipal  administration  is  at  times  handicapped  by 
having  an  improved  section  of  the  town  cet  back  in  its  development  by  under- 
takings of  this  kind.  From  every  viewpoint,  therefore,  the  practice  is  condemned. 
That  is  from  every  viewpoint  but  that  of  the  successful  speculator.  To  him, 
perhaps,  it  paves  the  way  to  a  gilt-edge  proposition. 


TORT  WORTH'S  SHACKS  AND  SHANTIES 
FORM  SERIOUS  PART  OF  HOUSING  PROBLEM 

(From  Issue  of  Dec.   13.) 

Fort  Worth  has  its  quota  of  shacks  and  shanties.  They  border  the  business 
district,  intrude  themselves  upon  the  residential  areas  of  the  well-to-do,  and, 
intensifying  the  dull  aspect  of  the  Trinity  River  bottom,  form  the  conspicuous 
breach  in  the  continuity  of  modern  appearances  which  gives  to  the  North  Side 
and  the  original  city  their  metropolitan  compactness.  They  appear  in  divers 
shapes  and  sizes.  Their  patterns — some  of  them — are  relics  of  types  of  archi- 
tecture now  archaic,  and  their  grim,  suggestive  visages  conjure  up  the  imaginings 
of  childhood's  ghost-lore.  A  fit  place,  one  says  of  them,  for  the  mysterious 
prowlings  of  midnight  specters,  the  commission  of  ugly,  uncanny  deeds  or  the 
sequestration  of  rich  caches  of  plunder.  Scenes  most  unlovely  under  the  bright 
eye  of  day,  they  become  foreboding  illusions  when  cast  upon'  the  dark  screen  of 
night,  and  are  objects  which  the  caution  of  the  belated  pedestrian  peremptorily 
urges  him  to  avoid. 

About  these  huts  and  hovels  of  the  Trinity  there  is  nothing  of  the  strange 
witchery  of  the  jacals  of  the  San  Antonio.  'Way  down  South,  amid  the  cactus  and 
the  chapparal,  the  rough-fashioned  dwellings  of  bronze,  sombreroed  people, 
skirting  the  city,  seem  somehow  to  blend  their  bizarre  arrangement  in  the  pic- 
turesciueness  of  the  bordering  wilds.  No  such  subtle  charm  attaches  to  the  ram- 
shackle cabins  of  the  Trinity.  Their,  crudeness,  insufferable  state  of  repair: 
the  unsanitary  environment  in  which  they  repose;  their  utter  lack  of  proper 
equipment  for  respectable  living — all  these  elements  in  their  totality  impose  an 
incongruous  blight  upon  the  city  that  robs  its  very  heart  of  the  metropolitan 
aspect  it  should  so  proudly  wear. 

The  bottom  of  the  Trinity,  separating  the  North  Side  from  the  larger  terri- 
tory of  the  city,  is  studded  with  these  uninviting  structures.  They  appear  alone 
and  in  groups.  Some  bear  faint  evidences  of  an  original  plan;  many  of  them 
do  not,  revealing  rather  as  their  guiding  impulse  a  sole  desire  to  throw  together, 
haphazard,  as  it  were,  enouerh  boards  and  scantlings  to  provide  a  temporary 
shelter  in  a  time  of  storm.  At  best  they  are  not  living  places,  because  of  their 
situation.  Low  of  altitude,  they  are  naturally  subjected  to  constant  waves  of 
noxious  miasmata  of  the  bottom  lands.  Compounded  with  these,  the  noisome 
effluvia  of  the  slaughter  pens  and  neighboring  junk  heaps  could  not  be  well 
expected  to  contribute  to  the  joy  of  respiration  nor  to  the  health  of  residence 
there. 

They  are  peopled  with  the  noor — the  flotsam  and  jetsam  of  the  social  tide 
that  ask  not  for  better  because  they  do. not  know  how  to  ask.  They  have  trained 
themselves  to  a  sort  of  contentment,  at  least  to  a  habit  of  living,  that  does  not 
nermit  complaint  of  things  that  cnn  not  be  helped.  They  evince  a  stoicism  more 
indurated  by  the  cold  processes  of  circumstance  than  elevated  bv  the  noble  influ- 
ence of  fortitude.  They  want  little,  have  less  and  never  expect  more.  So  why 
should  it  not  suffice  th-it  they  continue  as  they  are?  Society's  disdainful  question 
may  some  day  be  answered  unexpectedly. 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  85 

PROBLEM  OF  THE  MUD. 

Across  the  river,  on  the  North  Side,  one  enters  the  atmosphere  of  a  foreign 
clime.  The  chatter  of  strange  tongues  comes  to  the  ears  from  litttle  groups  of 
men  idling  on  the  streets  or  from  husky  housewives  bending  diligently  over  wash- 
tubs  in  back  yards  cluttered  with  heterogeneous  masses  of  trash  that  defy  assort- 
ment into  their  multifarious  forms.  The  musical  prattle  of  children  at  their  play  in 
volume  alone  insures  at  least  one  section  of  the  commonwealth  against  the 
calamity  of  race  suicide.  Opportunity  there  is  unlimited  for  the  pronouncement 
of  Rooseveltian  benisons. 

On  and  on  one  may  go  through  a  city  of  little  homes.  Many  of  them  are 
neat  and  attractive,  evidencing  painstaking  care  in  their  up-keep.  These,  beyond 
doubt,  are  owned  by  their  occupants.  They  have  the  atmosphere  of  home.  Their 
premises  are  not  neglected  and  the  houses  reveal  in  appearance  the  fulfillment  of 
functions  other  than  the  mere  provision  of  refuge  from  the  weather. 

And  then  there  are  others — many  of  them.  They  are  indeed  a  grewsome 
spectacle.  Rattletrap  affairs  that  threaten  to  fall  before  the  first  harsh  gust  of 
,  wind.  Roofs  that  leak  and  sometimes  blow  away;  casements  torn  out  and  rem- 
nants of  abandoned  blankets  filled  in;  porches  broken  at  each  end  or  in  the  middle, 
leading  to  dark  and  gloomy  hallways  that  open  into  drearier  rooms;  doors  hang- 
ing, neglected,  from  rusty,  broken  hinges;  fences  that  have  long  since  lost  their 
continuity  and  their  service;  outhouses  in  the  last  stages  of  dismemberment, 
poisoning  the  air  with  their  effluent  odors;  front  and  back  yards  littered  with 
trash  and  refuse  and  the  whole  premises  floating,  figuratively,  in  a  viscous  sea 
of  mud — these  elements  form  the  picture  of  parts  of  the  Bohunk  district  of  Fort 
Worth's  North  Side  on  the  third  day  of  a  slow,  continuous  rain. 

That  mud!  Ankle-deep  wasn't  even  the  beginning.  Crossing  the  street  or 
pursuing  his  way  along  the  sidewalk  or  across  some  private  premises,  one  might 
seek  to  pick  his  route  in  vain.  .It  soon  reduced  itself  to  a  proposition  of  clinching 
the  teeth  and  grimly  stalking  ahead  with  a  muttered  imprecation  upon  the  bad 
fix  in  which  he  found  himself,  together  with  a  fleet  though  fervent  thought  of 
thankfulness  that  he  didn't  wear  low-quartered  shoes.  If  he  had,  they  would 
never  have  come  out  of  that  mud — on  his  feet.  Mud  to  the  right  of  him.  mud  to 
the  left  of  him,  enveloped  the  scene,  and,  warm  and  perspiring  with  the  repeated 
exertion  of  extricating  one  foot  from  the  reluctant  tentacles  of  one  place  only  to 
have  the  other  seized  with  a  firmer  hold,  the  pedestrian,  pausing  to  gaze  uoon 
the  countless  pools  in  their  muddy  beds,  doubtless  repined  with  the  Ancient 
Mariner  as  to  the  ubiquity  of  the  water  and  the  nothingness  of  the  drink. 

IMPROVEMENT  PAYS  IN  LONG  RUN. 

And  in  it  all  these  people  lived.  The  pretty  pavements  of  which  the  Panther 
Citv  boasts  do  not  extend  to  the  house-fronts  of  Door  people  ylike  these.  But, 
perhaps,  they  do  not  want  them.  Loblollies  are  such  a  relief,  anyway — after  they 
are  gone.  That  is  the  case  if  people  of  the  kind  can  extract  from  circumstance 
the  sarne  philosophy  that  inspired  the  Irishman  in  the  story  to  pound  his  toe  with 
a  hammer  "because  it  felt  so  good  when  it  quit  hurtingr."  But  as  to  decent  and 
sanitary  living — it  is  hardlv  possible  amid  such  surroundings  as  these.  It  is  true 
that  when  the  weather  is  fair  there  is  no  mud,  but  when  it  rains  the  situation  in 
seme  parts  of  the  section  becomes  almost  unbearable. 

Anticipating  the  criticism  of  business  men  that  it  would  hot  pay  to  spend 
money  for  the  improvement  of  public  property  surrounding  such  premises  as 
these,  it  is  granted  at  once  that  compensation  would  not  come — immediately. 
Owners  of  poor  property  do  not  feel  justified  in  payiner  for  improvements  that 
increase  their  investments  and  do  not  materiallv  raise  their  revenue.  And, 
mathematically,  they  can  demonstrate  to  the  final  dollar  the  fatuity  of  such  busi- 
ness policy.  But  business  rpre'y  fie.uo^  far  ahead.  It  almost  never  calculates 
beyond  its  own  generation  For  such  a  re  nod  it  is  undoubtedly  unwise  from  a 
business  standpoint  to  jeopardize  interest- be.'' ring  holdings  by  enhancing  their 
cost  without  prospect  of  auqfmertinq-  tbeir  vield  Nevertheless,  in  the  long  run, 
And  it  is  the  long  run,  and  the  long  run  alone, that  policy  is  indubitable  nmvise. 
that  society  must  take  into  account  in  dealing  with  problems  of  this  kind.  A 
little  spirit  of  "philanthropy  ?.nd  5  per  cent"  will  work  wonders  in  a  community 


86  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

eventually,  even  though  sage  business  men  doubt  its  wisdom  and  are  prone  to 
charge  its  application  exclusively  to  the  chanty  account.  Then,  tco,  the  element 
of  civic  pride  enters  to  compensate  in  the  everlasting  reward  of  inward  satisfac- 
tion for  whatever  attending  curtailment  of  revenue  the  proper,  patriotic,  philan- 
thropic course  might  produce. 


PROPER  HOUSING  OF  FOREIGN  ELEMENT 

GIVES  FORT  WORTH  IMPORTANT  TASK 

(From  Issue  of  Dec.   14.) 

Like  all  cities  of  Texas  that  have  devoted  little  or  no  attention  to  the  housing 
of  their  unskilled  working  people,  Fort  Worth  finds  itself,  upon  investigation, 
confronted  by  all  the  attending  problems  of  improper  methods  and  means  of 
living.  Especially  in  those  districts  given  over  largely  to  the  residence  of  foreign 
laborers  are  conditions  of  living  in  most  of  their  phases  found  to  be  undesirable 
and  injurious  to  the  permanency  of  proper  social  standards.  Fort  Worth  has  a 
large  percentage  of  this  type  of  labor,  and  sooner  or  later  it  will  be  called  upon 
to  deal  vigorously  with  a  situation  that  augments  in  stubbornness  with  its 
continuation. 

The  so-called  Bohunk  population  of  Fort  Worth  hardly  finds  a  ready 
welcome.  It  comprises,  chiefly.  Bulgarians,  Russians  and  Poles  of  the  very 
humblest  social  standing,  who  underbid  Americans  in  the  matter  of  wages  for 
the  employment  they  seek.  They  can  live  on  less  than  the  American  laborers 
because  they  want  less  and  are  so  constituted  mentally  and  morally  that  the> 
will  readily  endure  the  more  of  life's  discomforts.  In  consequence  the  conditions 
of  living  that  surround  them  reveal  the  acme  of  social  degradation. 

Overcrowding  is  found  at  its  worst  in  Fort  Worth  among  the  sordid  homes 
of  these  helpless  foreigners.  It  occurs  in  the  individual  houses  occupied  by 
separate  families  who  are  forced  to  sublet  portions  of  their  homes  or  to  bring 
boarders  and  lodgers  in  to  make  the  monthly  revenue  meet  the  expense  "of  actual 
necessities  of  life.  It  is  also  found  in  the  boarding  and  rooming  houses  devoted 
largely  to  the  accommodation  of  men.  The  capacity  of  living  rooms  is  taxed 
to  the  uttermost  in  the  effort  to  supply  sleeping  places  to  the  great  demand. 
Where  this  process  of  overcrowding  goes  on,  expense  of  living  is  proportionately 
reduced  to  the  person  or  persons  involved,  and  the  incidental  saving,  it  is  learned 
upon  dependable  information,  is  more  the  cause  of  such  conditions  than  is  the 
lack  of  quarters  wherein  less  crowded  conditions  might  be  enjoyed.  These 
foreigners  apparently  make  rabbit  warrens  of  their  homes  as  much  from  choice 
as  from  necessity.  Untutored  in  hygiene,  they  do  not  perceive  the  unsanitary 
effect  of  such  modes  of  living,  and  when  only  inconvenience  or  the  absence  of 
privacy  is  the  attending  cost,  it  is  readily  accepted  without  murmur  on  the  ground 
that  it  is  outweighed  by  the  consequent  saving  in  revenue.  The  result  has  been 
that  houses  stand  vacant,  which,  if  occupied,  would  relieve  this  condition  of 
congestion,  merely  because  the  people  who  should  occupy  them  largely  prefer 
to  crowd  themselves  into  smaller  quarters  when  the  attending  sacrifice  of 
respectable  habits  of  living  is  compensated  in  the  saving  of  a  dollar  or  so  a  week 
or  a  month.  This  characteristic  necessarily  complicates  the  situation,  for  where 
apathy  on  the  part  of  the  public  meets  indifference  on  the  part  of  the  tenant, 
there  is  likely  to  be  no  immediate  movement  for  betterment  of  conditions  that 
are  at  once  the  bane  of  both. 

This  situation  emphasizes  the  virtue  of  the  principle  that  the  public  should 
deal  with  conditions  injurious  to  accepted  moral  and  social  standards,  whether 
those  immediately  affected  desire  assistance  or  not.  Viewed  from  the  high  moral 
standpoint,  it  does  not  matter  whether  the  Bohunks  want  better  conditions  or 
whether  they  would  resent  apparent  interference  with  their  present  modes  of 
living.  Perhaps  the  slight  saving  in  money  is  of  vital  importance,  and  it  becomes 
to  them  the  better  part  of  wisdom  to  submit  to  overcrowding  than  to  spend  their 
all  for  more  spacious  quarters.  The  fact,  nevertheless,  remains  that  it  is  to 
society's  detriment  if  conditions  are  permitted  to  continue  as  they  now  appear, 
and  to  its  advantage  if  they  are  relieved.  These  foreigners  did  not  come,  perhaps. 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  87 

through  invitation.  But  the  manner  of  their  coming  is  not  the  vital  consideration. 
The  fact  that  they  are  here  is  of  chief  importance,  and  means  to  lift  them  as 
near  to  the  common  standards  of  social  life  as  available  methods  and  their 
responsiveness  will  permit  should  be  the  first  thought  in  contemplating  their 
condition.  As  long  as  they  are  allowed  to  live  as  they  do  they  continue  to  be  a 
drag  upon  the  entire  citizenship.  And  if  they  are  -to  be  eventually  assimilated, 
they  should  at  least  be  compelled  to  adopt  proper  standards  of  living  to  prevent  or 
modify  whatever  evil  effect  may  follow  their  continuous  contact  with  the  social 
body.  The  wage  competition  of  these  people  with  labor  that  wish  to  maintain 
better  standards  of  living  must  be  disastrous. 

One  story  of  recent  occurrence  will  suffice  to  emphasize  the  situation  on  the 
North  Side.  The  Bohunks  live  like  the  Chinese,  in  thickly  congested  areas,  and 
perhaps  bear  to  the  American's  eye  the  same  general  physical  resemblances  one  to 
another  that  are  more  of  less  characteristic  of  Chinese  settlements  in  America. 
The  other  daysone  of  the  colony  was  arrested  for  some  offense.  He  made  bond 
and  presented  himself  for  trial  at  the  appointed  time.  He  was  tried  and  convicted, 
and  before  sentence  was  passed,  or  he  had  been  placed  in  the  custody  of  the 
officers,  he  deliberately  arose,  walked  through  the  crowd,  left  the  courtroom,  and 
hasn't  been  heard  of  since,  though  the  entire  community  has  been  thoroughly 
searched  time  and  again.  Those  who  presume  to  knowledge  of  the  ways  of  these 
people  assert  positively  that  the  elusive  offender  is  doubtless  pursuing  his 
customary  course  amid  old  associates,  safe  in  the  concealment  of  the  crowd 
and  the  lack  of  distinct  identity  which  they  bear. 

In  nowise  is  the  situation  yet  beyond  control.  In  fact,  it  is  of  virtually 
recent  origin,  and  by  vigorous  methods  on  the  part  of  the  city  it  can  be  relieved 
and  prevented  from  recurrence.  A  few  more  years,  however,  and  it  will  have., 
perhaps,  passed  from  control  and  be  subject  to  remedy  only  at  enormous  expense 
and  painstaking  care.  By  far  the  easier  solution  involves  immediate  action 
rather  than  radical  measures  later,  when  the  situation  shall  have  hardened  and 
become  less  yielding  to  improvement. 


TEXAS  CITIES  HAVE  COMMON  TROUBLES 
DOMINATING  THEIR  HOUSING  PROBLEMS 

(From  Issue  of  Dec.   15.) 

Before  presenting  a  digest  of  methods  that  have  successfully  relieved  and 
precluded  undesirable  housing  conditions  in  cities  of  America  which  have  been 
thoroughly  aroused  to  the  need  of  considering  the  future  in  its  relation  to  their 
material  and  social  development,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  summarize  and  to 
emphasize  the  salient  points  that  have  largely  dominated  this  discussion  of 
housing  conditions  in  Texas.  Throughout  this  series  of  articles  it  has  been  the 
unpretentious  effort  of  the  writer  to  show,  first,  that  a  serious  housing  problem 
prevails  in  each  of  the  leading  cities  of  the  State;  that  inasmuch  as  its  presence 
is  usually  restricted  to  comparatively  small  areas  it  nowhere  presents  insuperable 
obstacles  to  successful  solution,  yet,  at  the  same  time,  by  the  continuous 
enhancement  of  artificial  values  it  is  acquiring  a  strong,  tenacious  hold  upon 
communities  which  they  may  eventually  find  themselves  unable  to  dislodge;  and, 
finally,  that  American  and  European  experience  and  judgment  unite  in 
commending  the  principle  of  prevention  as  a  medium  superior  to  cure  in  the 
intelligent  direction  and  control  of  social  development. 

The  housing  problem  in  each  of  the  principal  cities  of  the  State  has  unique 
phases.  In  San  Antonio  the  conspicuous  question  concerns  the  Mexican  laborers. 
In  Fort  Worth  it  is  the  foreign  population  that  distinguishes  the  city's  problem 
from  the  problems  of  its  sister  cities.  In  Dallas  the  main  problem  presents  itself 
in  the  housing  of  factory  workers  and  of  negroes.  And  thus  it  goes,  around  the 
circle  of  the  State,  each  city  having  a  peculiar  condition  to  treat  by  means  it  may 
devise  and  consider  best,  but  each,  nevertheless,  having  certain  conditions  in 
common  that  are  basic  in  the  general  housing  problem  which  all  the  leading 
municipalities  are  facing. 


88  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

OVERCROWDING  AND   CONGESTION. 

Widely  prevalent  in  Texas,  in  fact  existing  to  a  greater  or  a  lesser  degree  in 
all  cities  inspected  by  the  writer,  are  the  CVKS  of  overcrowding  of  houses  and 
congestion  of  premises.  Legislative  restriction  has  not  been  placed  upon  the 
construction  of  houses  for  rental  purposes,  and  it  is  no  infringement  of  statutory 
law  to  build  three  structures  for  the  occupancy  of  tenants  upon  a  plat  of  ground 
that  provides  an  area  scarcely  large  enough  for  the  purposes  of  one.  There  is 
either  a  fascinating  lure  about  speculation  in  the  poorer  character  of  rental 
property,  or  so  vast  a  risk  of  investment  that  it  becomes  the  part  of  self-protection 
to  wring  the  last  copper  of  revenue  from  the  outlay  by  minimizing  the  cost  and 
augmenting  to  unreasonable  proportions  the  unit  of  compensation,  together  with 
a  corresponding  advance  in  the  rate  of  interest  that  is  exacted.  The  result  of  this 
has  been  to  fill  certain  sections  of  Texas  cities  with  lateral  tenement  houses, 
differing  from  the  tenements  of  New  York,  as  it  has  been  previously  remarked,, 
only  in  size  and  undue  expansion  horizontally  instead  of  vertically.  Then,  to 
meet  the  high  rental  values  placed  upon  the  property  at  his  use,  the  tenant  'has 
formed  the  practice  of  augmenting  his  revenue  by  boarding  and  lodging  outsiders. 
The  smallness  of  the  .house,  in  the  first  instance,  and  the  usual  largeness  of  the 
tenant's  family,  together  with  this  enforced  acceptance  within  the  home  of 
outsiders  and  strangers,  bring  about  the  crowded  condition  of  living  apartments 
that  are  revealed  in  the  enormity  of  their  offense'  against  health,  propriety  and 
decency  only  by  an  actual  and  painstaking  census  from  house  to  house.  These 
conditions  are  common  to  virtually  all  the  conspicuous  cities  of  Texas  and  as 
surely  as  they  are  permitted  to  continue  ungoverned  by  exacting  regulations  just 
as  surely  will  they  augment  in  the  intensity  of  their  attending  degradation. 

Necessarily  associated  with  the  foregoing  conditions  are  the  housing  evils 
of  poor  venti'ation  and  insufficient  light.  Privacy  among  the  homes  of  the 
unskilled  working  people  is  an  enjoyment  for  the  most  part  unknown.  Their 
home  life  is  subjected  to  the  constant  scrutiny  of  their  neighbors  and  sooner  ,vr 
later,  social  workers  declare,  begins  to  show  the  injurious  effects  upon  its 
standards  of  this  erosive  influence.  And  there  are  no  apparent  indications  of 
substantial  abatement  of  conditions  of  this  kind.  Housing  enterprises  for  the 
use  of  the  humbler  laborers  are  being  projected  throughout  the  State  with  no 
noticeable  deviation  from  principles  that  have  dominated  them  in  the  pa-t. 
Houses  are  being  crowded  upon  lots  too  closely  for  proper  sanitation.  Insufficient 
attention  is  devoted  to  their  construction  for  the  purpose  of  insuring  adequate 
light  and  ventilation.  No  thought,  apparently,  is  given  to  a  postulate  fundamental 
in  scientific  consideration  of  proper  racial  development — careful  attention  to  the 
growing  child  who  evolves  from  the  innocent  weakling  of  today  into  the  citizen 
of  tomorrow,  still  weak  and  ignorant,  or  sound  and  vigorous,  as  his  training  and 
opportunity  may  have  caused.  And  seldom,  if  ever,  are  the  finer  sensibilities  of 
the  human  being  considered  as  worthy  elements  in  the  social  fabric,  for  there  are 
few  apparent  efforts  made  to  aid  their  wholesome  development  or  to  preserve 
them  in  their  pristine  virtue. 

CITIES,  THEMSELVES,  ARE  NEGLIGENT. 

Moreover,  it  has  been  found  that  a  common  criticism  of  the  cities  of  Texas 
is  their  negligence  of  duties  upon  the  fulfillment  of  which  good  housing  depends 
for  its  very  life.  In  the  absence  of  State  housing  laws  or  municipal  ordinances 
to  restrict  construction  and  to  limit  occupancy,  the  only  safeguard  against  evil 
conditions  within  the  homes  of  the  poorer  working  people  and  their  surroundings 
is  the  city's  faithful  and  indiscriminate  enforcement  of  its  sanitary  code.  Where 
city  ordinance  prohibits  surface  outhouses  within  a  given  distance  of  sewer  mains, 
and  where  closets  of  the  kind  are  permitted  in  territory  supplied  with  sewers,  the 
city,  itself,  is  responsible  for  whatever  evil  conditions  of  housing  arise  from 
such  disobedience  to  its  mandates.  And  yet  it  is  a  very,  very  frequent  com- 
plaint in  Texas  that  municipal  authorities  do  not  enforce  the  provisions  of  such 
ordinances.  Again,  the  cities,  themselves,  are  frequently  responsible  for  a  multi- 
plicity of  surface  closets  because  of  the  inadequacy  of  their  sewer  systems.  Un- 
less the  sewers  fully  cover  the  territory  of  the  town,  there  must  be  some  surface 
outhouses  and  there  must  be  some  areas  exposed  to  the  contamination  of  tlieir 
effluent  contagions.  Experience  has  taught  that  one  of  the  most  important  con- 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  89 

siderations  of  a  system  of  good  housing  is  a  system  of  good  sewerage.  Good 
housing  rarely  prevails  over  wide  territories,  however  well  provided  with  other 
means  of  attainment,  without  this  necessary  complement  of  its  equipment.  The 
extension  of  sewers  to  all  parts  of  the  incorporated  area  becomes,  therefore,  one 
of  the  first  considerations  of  a  municipality  that  has  determined  to  better  its 
standards  of  housing. 

In  the  compliance  with  health  codes,  the  cities  themselves  are  frequently  lax. 
Proper  attention  is  not  always  bestowed  upon  the  disposal  of  garbage.  There 
must  be  some  adequate  means  of  removing  and  destroying  the  refuse  of  the  house 
in  order  to  preserve  proper  standards  of  sanitation.  When  this  is  not  done  under 
the  supervision  of  the  city,  the  carelessness  and  negligence  of  the  tenant,  together 
with  the  city's  indisposition  to  awaken  him  to  his  duty,  not  infrequently  make 
of  advisory  laws  nothing  more  than  a  mockery.  Inspection  of  premises  is  not 
sufficiently  rigorous.  Discretionary  powers  invested  in  officials  are  sometimes 
retardents  upon  the  enforcement  of  the  law.  Then,  too,  the  juries — the  people — • 
are  frequently  prone  to  deem  a  law  that  compels  one  to  clean  up  his  premises 
as  a  sort  of  infringement  upon  the  inalienable  rights  of  American  citizenship.  In- 
attention to  drainage,  absence  of  provisions  for  the  fumigation  01  vacant  houses, 
and  many  similar  things  that  should  be  done  immediately  and  that  are  vital 
to  good  housing,  yet  which  are  neglected,  conspire  to  complicate  the  problem 
wherever  it  prevails  in  Texas.  And  all  this  reveals  the  real  source  of  the  trouble 
— the  indifference  of  the  public. 

In  its  general  form,  as  it  appears  in  Texas  and  as  it  doubtless  appears  else- 
where, the  housing  problem  is  in  respect  of  many  things  threefold.  Primarily 
it  concerns  the  past,  the  present  and  the  future.  Lawrence  Veiller  writes  that 
housing  reform  should  be  directed  first  "toward  preventing  the  erection  of  build- 
ings that  are  unsuitable  for  people  to  live  in."  Then,  the  proper  maintenance  of 
existing  houses  must  be  enforced,  and,  finally,  the  errors  of  the  past  must  be 
corrected.  Moreover,  it  must  be  considered  and  solved  from  three  angles — the 
sanitary,  the  structural,  the  social.  It  also  must  be  considered  and  solved  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  tenant,  the  landlord  and  the  public,  and  the  welfare  of 
any  of  these  must  not  be  ignored.  And  finally  it  must  be  considered  and  solved 
from  the  viewpoint  of  existing  conditions,  the  laws,  and  their  administration. 
It  will  be  the  effort  of  final  chapters  of  this  discussion  to  present  an  explanation 
of  established  means  of  attaining  the  desired  solution! 


HOUSING  CAMPAIGN  SHOULD  START 

WITH  THOROUGH  SURVEY  OF  CITY 

(From  Issue  of  Dec.   16.) 

After  protracted  study  of  systems  of  treatment  that  have  been  evolved  in  the 
United  States  for  the  improvement  of  undesirable  conditions  of  housing,  couoled 
with  a  consistent  effort  to  harmonize,  in  so  far  as  he  could,  the  essential 
differences  of  application  growing  out  of  distinct  variations  in  climate,  race  and 
local  conditions,  the  writer  is  persuaded  to  follow  closely  the  constructive  work 
of  Mr.  Lawrence  Veiller  of  New  York  in  the  preparation  of  a  suggestive  program 
of  housing  reform  adaptable  to  cities  of  Texas.  Mr.  Veiller  is  recognized  as  one 
of  the  foremost  social  workers  of  America,  and  he  has  made  a  life-long  study  of 
the  housing  problem  in  its  multifarious  phases.  His  first  intimate  knowledge  of 
how  the  other  half  lives  was  acquired  as  a  settlement  worker  in  New  York  City, 
and  it  .has  augmented  and  developed  through  years  of  consistent  service  in 
broader  fields.  He  served  as  secretary  and  virtually  directed  the  work  of  the 
tenement  house  committee  of  the  New  York  Charity  Organization  Society  when 
it  was  organized  in  1898.  As  secretary  of  the  New  York  State  Tenement  House 
Commission  in  1900  he  assisted  in  the  drafting  of  the  present  tenement  house  law 
for  cities  of  the  first  class,  which  created  the  tenement  house  department  of  the 
City  of  New  York.  For  two  years  thereafter  he  served  as  first  deputy  tenement 
Commissioner  and  helped  to  give  the  law  its  first  enforcement.  At  present  Mr. 
VeilTer  is  secretary  and  director  of  the  National  Housing  Association  and  is 
virtually  the  head'of  the  housing  movement  in  the  United  States. 


po  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

Mr.  Veiller  takes  the  position  that  the  failure  "to  remedy  bad  housing  con- 
ditions in  many  communities  has  been  due  not  so  much  to  lack  of- understanding 
of  the  conditions  themselves,  as  to  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  best  method  of 
remedying  them."  It  is  the  writer's  belief  that  cities  ot  Texas  are  not  among  this 
class.  Every  indication  suggestive  of  cause  that  has  come  under  his  observation 
during  several  months  of  investigation  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  the  presence 
of  housing  troubles  in  Texas  cities  is  due  to  the  ignorance  of  the  people 
concerning  prevalent  conditions.  At  the  outset,  it  was  ascertained  that  a  very 
few  citizens  of  Dallas,  other  than  social  workers,  knew  of  w.hat  consisted  the 
city's  housing  problem.  The  same  ignorance  was  revealed  in  San  Antonio,  in 
Houston  and  elsewhere.  As  a  general  thing  the  public  has  been  unconscious  of 
the  life  of  the  other  half  and  it  has  exhibited  certain  amazement  when  it  has 
observed  for  itself  just  what  conditions  actually  surrounded  it. 

FACTS  SHOULD  COME  FIRST. 

Consequently,  it  should  appear  to  every  community  that  desires  improvement 
of  housing  conditions  that  the  first  thing  to  do  is  the  ascertainment  of  facts. 
Lay  bare  the  city,  analyze  its  social  conditions  coldly  and  honestly  and  then  from 
general  principles  that  are  applicable  everywhere  and  special  regulations  to  meet 
peculiar  local  conditions,  formulate  a  program  of  reform  that  will  tend  to 
obliterate  the  evil  and  install  the  good.  To  attain  this  end  a  careful,  painstaking 
survey  of  the  city  is  necessary;  and  it  should  be  performed  by  a  committee  of 
citizens  possessing  public  confidence  and  representative  of  the  highest  intelligence, 
skill  and  integrity  of  their  several  professions  or  trades.  Upon  appointment  and 
the  commencement  of  its  work,  the  functions  of  this  committee  become  dual. 
It*  will  launch  the  campaign  of  reform  and  must  remain  with  it  throughout  its 
progress.  Therefore  it  devolve?  upon  it  not  only  to  ascertain  the  essential  facts 
of  the  situation  and  to  formulate  remedies  for  reprehensible  conditions,  but  also 
to  assume  the  tnsk  ^c  educating  the  community  with  respect  to  its  discoveries 
and  to  the  methods  available  for  the  improvement  of  conditions  of  social 
degradation.  Mr.  Veiller  says  of  such  a  committee  that  it  must  of  necessity  be 
"a  body  sufficiently  wise  to  prosecute  its  inquiry  and  urge  its  reform  in  a 
practical  and  a  sane  way,  and  also  one  that  will  command  public  confidence." 

Continuing  with  reference  to  the  formation  of  a  committee  to  survey  the  city, 
Mr.  Veiller  writes  that  inasmuch  as  the  questions  with  which  it  will  have  to  deal 
will  be  those  of  building  construction,  architectural  planning,  fire  protection, 
sanitation  and  modern  social  problems,  the  committee  should  preferably  be  com- 
posed of  leading  representatives  of  the  professions  actively  dealing  with  such 
problems.  Therefore— and  the  wisdom  of  the  suggestion  immediately  asserts 
itself — it  should  have  among  its  members  if  possible  a  practical  architect,  a  high- 
class  builder,  a  sanitary  engineer  or  experienced  plumber,  a  responsible  member 
of  the  fire  department,  the  superintendent  of  public  buildings  or  an  officer 
discharging  similar  duties,  a  physician,  a  lawyer,  a  real  estate  man,  a  social  worker 
and  such  other  citizens  of  representative  type  who  would  be  interested  in  the 
movement  both  from  a  humanitarian  consideration  and  a  motive  of  laudable 
self-interest. 

It  is  immediately  obvious  that  the  selection  of  this  committee  should  be  n. 
matter  of  care  and  thought.  Its  membership  must  be  harmonious  and  it  must 
have  a  capable  executive  as  its  chairman — some  one  who  understands  the  function 
of  directing,  who  is  fitted  for  the  quick  adjustment  of  petty  differences  that 
sometimes  intrude  themselves  into  a  deliberative  body  to  the  defeat  of  its  ends, 
and  who  has  large  powers  of  discretion,  tact,  initiation  and  aggressiveness.  "No 
variety  of  professional  experience,"  says  Mr.  Veiller,  discussing  the  necessity  for 
an  efficient  and  homogeneous  committee,"  should  outweigh  this  essential  e1ement. 
*  *  *  Every  movement  for  housing  reform  is  a  battle.  Most,  of  them  are 
protracted  wars  extending  over  many  years.  The  leader  of  the  campaign  must 
.have  many  of  the  qualities  of  a  good  general.  Strategy  must  not  be  unknown  to 
him.  Vitally  important  is  to  get  the  point  of  view  of  the  various  interests  involved 
in  bad  housing  conditions.  There  must  be  breadth  of  view,  fair-mindedness  and 
tolerance  of  the  rights  of  others,  of  the  owners  as  well  as  of  the  tenants,  if  a 
successful  outcome  is  to  be  had  from  such  a  movement.  There  can  be 

no  successful  legislation  based  upon  impressions.     Reforms  not  based  upon  fully 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS.  91 

ascertained  facts  will  be  found  to  have  no  permanent  value.  You  will  but  enact 
a  law  one  year  to  have  it  repealed  the  next.  The  breastworks  which  defend  the 
law  are  made  of  the  materials  dug  out  in  the  investigation." 

KEEP  PUBLIC  INTERESTED  IN  WORK. 

The  proper  housing  investigation  must  concern  itself  with  causes  and 
tendencies,  inasmuch  as  it  seeks  to  work  to  practical  ends.  Moreover,  it  should 
have  definitely  in  mind  the  formulation  of  measures  intended  to  better  conditions. 
There  can  be  no  reform  if  the  campaign  be  allowed  to  stop  with  the  ascertainment 
and  publication  of  a  mass  of  discouraging,  heart-rending  facts.  Once  aroused  by 
information  the  public  is  ready  to  lend  its  assistance  to  the  correction  of  evils, 
but  the  public  has  a  deep-seated  forgetfulness  that  makes  the  sensation  of  today 
seem  trivial  when  remembered  tomorrow.  Therefore,  with  its  official  report  in 
hand  the  committee  should  have  the  basis  of  a  scheme  of  improvement  ready  to 
be  suggested  for  the  public's  consideration,  and  when  that 'shall  have  been 
projected  there  must  be  continued  effort  on  its  part  to  keep  the  interest  of  the 
people  alive  to  the  crying  need  of  reform.  While  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  bad 
housing  conditions  have  arisen  in  Texas  largely  because  the  public  has  not  been 
aware  of  what  was  going  on  around  it,  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  disposition  of 
the  public  to  forget  and  to  lose  interest  after  it  has  once  been  enlightened,  by 
heroic  efforts  if  by  no  other  means,  must  be  prevented  from  defeating  the  end 
in  view.  When  -the  crusade  is  once  undertaken  it  means  a  hard,  dogged  fight  until 
Concrete  results  shall  justify  a  cessation  of  especial  effort. 

Mr.  Veiller's  long  experience  convinces  him  that  no  part  of  a  housing 
investigation  is  of  more  importance  than  the  formulation  of  the  schedules  to  be 
used  in  the  inquiry.  A  month  or  more,  he  says,  may  well  be  taken  in  the 
preparation  of  these  schedules,  especially  where  the  investigators  have  had  little 
previous  knowledge  of  the  task  they  have  assumed.  The  schedules  should  be  in 
the  form  of  cards  so  that  they  may  be  easi^  filed,  and  the  size  suggested  is  a  length 
of  eight  inches  and  a  width  of  five.  The  points  expected  to  be  covered  should  be 
printed  upon  the  card  so  the  investigator  may  be  required  only  to  check  the  facts 
against  their  proper  classifications.  And  a  system  should  be  devised  to  eliminate 
the  confusion -attending  differences  in  judgment  of  different  persons  respecting 
the  conditions  upon  which  they  are  required  to  report.  The  schedule  should  be 
made  complete,  not  only  as  to  general  principles  of  housing,  but  also  as  to  local 
peculiarities  which  must  be  in  a  measure  understood  and  considered  in  advance  of 
the  investigation  by  social  workers  who  have  previously  gone  over  the  ground. 

The  facts  ascertained  and  analyzed,  the  report  made  and  given  wide  publicity, 
the  next  duty  of  the  committee  is  to  keep  up  its  campaign  of  education  with 
persistence.  It  will  doubtless  require  long  hammering  to  bring  an  evidence  of 
yielding,  but  when  it  does  come  the  results  obtained  will  in  all  probability  be  of 
sufficient  merit  and  magnitude  to  compensate  for  the  long  siege  of  discouraging 
effort. 

PRINCIPLES  OF  A  HOUSING  LAW 

SUGGESTED  FOR  TEXAS  CITIES 

(From  Issue  of  Dec.   17.) 

The  preparation  of  a  housing  code  is  a  work  that  calls  for  care  and  delib- 
eration. The  law  becomes  its  own  guaranty  of  life  or  its  own  condemnation  by 
virtue  of  the  success  it  meets  in  pursuing  its  purpose.  It  therefore  must  not  only 
be  drawn  to  stand  the  test  of  the  courts,  but  it  must  fulfill  its  practical  functions 
to  the  satisfaction  of  public  opinion.  Assailed  by  vigorous  opponents  from  the. 
time  of  its  pendency  in  the  Council  or  Legislature — a  certain  fate  it  must  meet 
and  overcome — the  influence  of  its  own  works  must  be  the  chief  reliance  of  its 
proponents  and  defenders  in  the  breaking  down  of  stubborn  and  powerful  oppo- 
sition that  may  mean  eventually  its  nullification  or  repeal. 

At  the  outset  it  should  be  understood  that  the  enactment  of  a  housing  law 
will  have  as  an  early  effect  the  apparent  curtailment  of  revenue  from  rental  prop- 
erties. Of  course,  there  are  innumerable  advantages  growing  out  of  the  rigid 
enforcement  of  such  a  statute  that  may  be  said  fully  to  compensate  indirectly  at 


92  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

least  the  attending  loss  in  rentals  and  expenditures  for  improvements,  but  these 
advantages  accrue  to  the  community  more  rapidly  than  to  the  landlord,  who  is 
not  easily  convinced  that  in  the  long  run  the  proper  modes  of  living  he  assists 
his  tenants  to  follow  will  return  to  him  directly  as  well  as  to  the  community  the 
substantial  income  he  believes  his  investment  entitles  him  to.  When  the  law  pro 
hibits  a  house  to  occupy  more  than  a  stated  percentage  of  the  lot,  the  traffic  in 
small,  closely-crowded  huts  and  shanties  is  stopped  and  revenue  is  proportion- 
ately reduced.  When  the  law  forbids  ihe  occupancy  of  a  room  by  more  people 
than  it  will  provide  the  proper  proportion  of  fresh  air  for,  the  business  of  the 
cheap  tenement  will  be  sadly  interfered  with  in  so  far  as  are  concerned  the  large 
revenues  extorted  from  hapless  creatures  who  are  compelled  by  greed  or  circum- 
stance to  sleep  in  rooms  after  the  fashion  of  sardines  in  a  box.  These  things 
and  their  like  may  be  expected  to  create  decided  and  powerful  opposition  to  any 
legislative  movement  that  contemplates  radical  changes. 

It  is  the  certainty  of  stubborn  opposition  that  makes  it  expedient,  therefore, 
to  impose  the  more  rigid  restrictions  upon  the  work  of  the  future,  rather 
than  to  undertake  radical  changes  in  conditions  that  are  already  prevalent  where 
their  consummation  is  sure  to  entail  considerable  loss  to  property  owners.  The 
process  of  attaining  good  housing  is  more  the  work  of  evolution  than  of  revolu- 
tion. It  is  simpler  to  build  up  good  housing  conditions  by  preventing  the  oc- 
currence of  obstacles  to  that  end,  than  it  is  to  eliminate  evil  conditions  that 
already  exist.  The  work  of  elimination  is  a  very  gradual  thing  usually,  where- 
as the  work  of  intelligent  construction  and  arrangement  of  all  parts  of  the 
growing  city  may  proceed  with  marked  rapidity.  It  is  this  phase  of  the 
problem  that  makes  endeavor  toward  the  attainment  of  ideal  conditions  in  the 
future  of  paramount  importance  in  designing  a  housing  campaign  with  its 
necessary  complement  of  legislation. 

KEEP  IT  A  CITY  OF  HOMES. 

In  providing  for  the  future  it  should  be  the  effort  of  all  cities  where  tene- 
ment houses  are  of  inconsiderable  number,  to  fix  upon  the  existing  number  as  a 
minimum  and  by  a  process  of  education  and  legislation  gradually  reduce  that 
minimum  to  the  vanishing  point.  Housing  experts  throughout  the  world  in- 
veigh against  the  tenement  house.  "Don't  let  your  city  become  a  city  of  tene- 
ments; keep  it  a  city  of  homes"  is  among  the  first  admonitions  to  cities  seeking 
aid  and  information  in  working  out  a  proper  housing  scheme.  This  may  be  ac- 
complished by  encouraging  the  construction  of  detached  houses  for  the  occu- 
pancy of  working  people  and  by  discouraging,  through  education  and  restrictive 
regulations,  the  erection  of  tenements. 

It  is  taken  for  granted  that  none  of  the  cities  of  Texas  desires  to  become  a 
tenement  city.  All  have  as  the  basis  of  their  present  housing  schemes  the  de- 
tached house,  although  there  are  many  instances  of  comparatively  small  struc- 
tures, themselves,  being  converted  into  institutions  that  meet  the  accepted  defi- 
nition of  a  tenement  house  as  it  is  recognized  by  law  in  the  United  States.  Wher- 
ever a  city  may  have  its  choice  as  between  tenements  and  individual  homes  it 
selects  the  latter,  the  former  presenting  in  their  most  aggravated  forms  the  stub- 
born evils  of  bad  housing.  There  is,  therefore,  little  use  in  Texas  for  a  tenement 
house  law.  A  general  housing  statute  will  serve  eventually  to  correct  what  tene- 
ment house  troubles  now  prevail  and  stop  their  further  development. 

That  the  law  to  assist  the  development  and  continuance  of  good  housing 
conditions  should  be  of  State  enactment  is  a  question  that  conditions  must  largely 
determine.  Such  a  measure  would  accomplish  at  once  throughout  the  entire 
State  that  which  it  would  doubtless  require  the  several  cities  a  long  time  to  do, 
and  yet  its  effect  might  not  prove  as  satisfactory  as  the  effect  of  local  ordi- 
nances because  of  greater  difficulties  in  the  way  of  its  enforcement.  Upon  the 
law's  enforcement  everything  will  depend.  Housing  evils  can  not  be  eradicated  by 
the  enactment  of  any  measure,  be  it  local  or  State-wide  in  scope.  They  will 
succumb  only  to  the  constant,  unrelenting  enforcement  of  the  law's  provisions. 
It  might  be,  therefore,  that  the  influence  of  public  sentiment  would  operate  more 
potently  toward  the  enforcement  of  a  local  law  than  toward  the  execution  of  a 
Statewide  measure.  However,  selection  becomes  a  matter  needing  the  most 


THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 


93 


careful  consideration,  and  should  not  be  made  before  the  judgment  of  many 
expert  minds  shall  have  been  procured. 

The  extent  to  which  a  housing  law  may  be  carried  will  become  in  Texas, 
perhaps,  something  of  a  problem.  It  will  in  all  probability  —  be  it  State  law  or 
city  ordinance  —  encounter  frequent  challenges  upon  constitutional  grounds. 
It  will  remain  for  the  legal  advisers  to  keep  the  measure  clear  of  constitu- 
tional shoals.  Should  they  succeed,  widespread  and  satisfying  results  may  be 
accomplished  under  the  operation  of  the  law;  should  they  fail,  other  means  of 
acquiring  a  permanency  of  proper,  wholesome  development  must  be  found. 

If  provision  can  not  be  made  for  the  consummation  of  desired  ends  by 
private  enterprise  under  public  supervision,  it  may  become  necessary  eventually 
to  charge  the  State,  the  municipality,  itself,  with  that  responsibility.  It  may  be, 
perhaps,  a  far  cry  from  present  political  conditions  to  a  public-owned  and  pub- 
lic-controlled scheme  of  housing,  yet  the  fact  remains  that  the  conspicuous  ex- 


"EXAMPLE  OF  CIVIC  ATTRACTIVENESS." 

amples  of  the  most  successful  crusades  against  old  and  hardened  slums  have  not 
only  been  waged  by  municipalities  themselves,  but  the  pretty,  comfortable  and 
healthful  residence  areas  into  which  the  former  denizens  of  the  slums  were 
moved,  have  been  designed  and  maintained  under  public  control.  The  King's 
Highway  of  London  was  once  a  slum  district.  It  is  now  one  of  the  most  mag- 
nificent boulevards  of  the  world.  The  people  who  used  to  dwell  amid  the  squalor 
of  the  old  slum  territory  now  reside  in  neat  brick  cottages  erected  by  the  Lon- 
don County  Council  from  the  profits  accruing  from  the  acquisition  and  subse- 
quent improvements  of  the  old  slum  district.  The  city  of  Berlin  is  a  city  without 
a  slum  area,  and  yet  more  than  twenty-five  years  ago  the  slum  was  the  bane 
of  its  municipal  life.  At  that  period  it  had  less  than  1,000,000  inhabitants;  today 
it  has  more  than  3,000,000,  and  is  rated  as  the  cleanest  city  in  the  world.  It 
took  over  the  control  of  its  housing  and  solved  its  problem  in  all  the  phases  of 
congestion,  overcrowding,  vice  and  squalor,  solely  by  municipal  effort,  and  not 
through  the  philanthropy,  the  charity  nor  the  benevolent  business  of  individuals. 

HAS  A   GRASP   ON  TEXAS. 

The   housing  problem   is   getting  a   hold   on   Texas   cities.      Unless   measures 
are  taken  immediately  to  solve  it  satisfactorily,  or  at  least  to  make  the  beginning 


94  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

of  solution,  it  will  become  more  complicated  and  intricate  with  the  passage  of 
the  years.  The  field  of  private  philanthropic  enterprise  is  open  and  may  b° 
cultivated  to  fruitful  advantage.  The  spirit  of  "philanthropy  and  5  per  cent" 
becomes  a  potent  social  force  when  properly-directed,  but  it  can  not,  ot  course, 
be  coerced.  Model  homes  erected  by  private  philanthropy  that  expects  only  a 
reasonable  return  upon  its  investment  assist  materially  in  trie  required  readjust- 
ment. But  they  may  be  erected  only  when  the  spirit  prompts  the  philanthropist. 
Adequate  laws  governing  the  construction  of  future  houses,  if  properly  en- 
forced, may  become  the  final  solvent  of  the  trouble,  and  should  be  liberally 
drawn  upon  wherever  there  is  a  sincere  desire  to  bring  about  improved  conditions 
of  living.  Their  potentiality  may  be  substantially  augmented  by  the  co-oper- 
ation of  private  philanthropy.  And  at  present  these  two  means  seem  all  that 
are  immediately  available.  That  fact  urges  more  forcibly  upon  the  student  of 
such  conditions  that  in  the  event  of  their  failure  the  last  resort  must  be  the  com- 
munity itself.  There  is  but  one  thing  inevitable:  Conditions  can  not  continue  to 
be  as  they  are  without  serious  detriment  to  the^social  body.  They  must  be  reme- 
died. Who  knows  that  it  will  not  come  about  in  this  country,  as  it  has  come 
in  Europe's  most  enlightened  nations,  that  the  privileges,  prerogatives  and  pow- 
ers of  the  municipality  itself  may  have  to  be  enlarged  and  broadened  to  permit 
of  community  ownership  of  and  community  dealing  in  the  housing  business? 
If  it  comes  it  will  be  as  the  dernier  resort — after  all  other  means  shall  have  failed. 
And,  again,  if  it  come,  it  will  doubtless  solve  the  problem. 

Reverting  to  the  subject  of  a  housing-  law,  the  principal  thing  to  accom- 
plish, it  has  been  previously  shown,  is  to  direct  aright  the  channel  of  develop- 
ment by  preventing  further  degradation  and  expansion  of  evil  conditions  of 
housing.  The  law  must  insist  that  all  buildings  constructed  in  the  future  shall 
comply  with  its.  provisions.  In  the  first  place,  if  possible,  it  should  limit  the 
area  of  the  building  lot  which  the  house  may  occupy — the  surest  means  of  pre- 
venting congestion  of  premises  and  of  creating  adequate  facilities  for  light  and 
ventilation.  The  height  of  the  house  should  be  regulated,  and  imperative  pro- 
visions made  for  yards  and  courts.  Rear  tenements,  if  possible,  should  be  for- 
bidden by  law,  and  if  it  be  found  that  this  procedure  is  inhibited  by  constitu- 
tional restrictions,  their  construction  should  be  regulated  by  rigid  rules  intended 
to  assist  the  execution  against  them  of  the  stern  provisions  of  the  sanitary 
code.  Dark  rooms  should  be  forbidden  by  insisting  upon  windows  that  open 
upon  a  street  or  yard>  and  in  so  far  as  it  may  be  legally  practicable,  the  size 
of  the  rooms  should  not  be  allowed  to  fall  below  a  fixed  minimum  of  cubic 
space.  Access  to  living  rooms  and  bed  rooms  should  be  had  without  passage 
through  another  bed  room,  thereby  insuring  the  privacy  that  is  essential  to 
wholesome  home  life. 

Under  the  head  of  sanitation  there  should  be  far-reaching  restrictions  im- 
posed upon  the  new  building.  Living  rooms  in  cellars  should  not  be  tolerated. 
Walls  and  floors  below  the  ground  level  should  be  damp-proof  and  water-proof. 
There  should  be  in  every  house  a  proper  sink  with  running  water,  where  public 
mains  are  reasonably  accessible,  and  also  where  public  of  private  sewers  are  rea- 
sonably accessible  every  house  should  have  within  it  a  water  closet.  Provisions 
should  be  made  to  effect  careful  plumbing.  The  bathtub  is  so  generally  consid- 
ered more  of  a  convenience  than  a  necessity  that  it  would  probably  be  difficult 
to  insist  upon  the  construction  of  every  house  in  the  future  with  bathroom 
equipment.  If  a  way  could  be  found,  however,  to  bring  this  about,  a  long-felt 
want  among  the  poor  would  be  satisfied. 

Alterations  of  houses  should  also  b,e  controlled  by  the  law,  similar  provi- 
sions applying  to  such  work  as  would  apply  to  the  construction  of  new  buildings. 

When  alterations  are  made  the  work  is  for  the  future. 

MAINTENANCE  OF  HOUSES  NOW  BUILT. 

Dealing  with  the  present,  that  is,  the  maintenance  of  houses  already 
erected,  there  should  be  strict  regulations  of  the  law  to  insure  wholesome  modes 
of  living.  Every  dwelling  house  should  at  all  times  be  supplied  with  water 
in  sufficient  quantity,  either  within  the  house  or  on  the  lot,  and  within  twelve 


96  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  OF  TEXAS. 

or  fifteen  feet  of  the  house.  If  the  city  mains  are  reasonably  accessible,  the  law 
should  insist  that  each  house  have  its  own  water  tap.  The  occupant  or  tenant 
of  every  dwelling  house  should  be  required  by  the  law  to  k<  >p  the  house  and 
premises  free  of  accumulations  of  dirt,  filth,  garbage  or  oth  •  refuse  matters, 
and  should  be  compelled  to  clean  the  premises  whenever  ordered  by  the  health 
authorities  to  do  so.  Wall  paper  should  never  be  placed  upon  the  walls  or 
ceiling  until  the  ol'd  paper  shall  have  been  removed  and  the  walls  or  ceiling 
thoroughly  cleaned.  The  tenant  should  be  required  to  provide  himself  with  a 
regulation  garbage  can.  and  the  city  should  take  charge  of  the  disposal  of  its 
contents.  If  a  room  in  a  dwelling  is  found  to  be  overcrowded,  the  Health  De- 
partment should  be  authorized  to  order  the  number  of  persons  sleeping  or  living 
therein  to  be  so  reduced  that  there  shall  not  be  less  than  600  cubic  feet  of  air  to 
each  adult  and  400  cubic  feet  of  air  to  each  child  under  12  years  of  age.  The 
law  should  also  provide  that  when  ver  a  dwelling  house  or  any  part  of  it  is 
infected  with  contagious  disease,  or  is  unfit  for  human  habitation,  or  dangerous 
to  life  or  health  by  reason  of  want  of  repair,  or  of  defects  in  drainage,  plumbing, 
ventilation  or  construction,  or  by  reason  of  existence  on  the  premises  of  nuis- 
ances likely  to  cause  sickness  among  the  occupants,  the  Health  Department  may 
issue  an  order  requiring  the  occupants  to  vacate  the  house.  Authority  should 
also  be  vested  in  the  Health  Board  to  compel  the  repair  of  buildings  unfit,  by 
reason  of  deterioration,  for  human  habitation.  With  respect  to  large  room- 
ing houses,  provisions  for  fire  escapes  should  be  made. 

The  law  should  also  compel  certain  improvements  in  dwellings  erected 
prior  to  its  passage,  although  it  will  probably  be  found  that  it  can  not  be  quite 
as  restrictive  in  this  instance  as  it  may  be  feasible  to  be  with  regard  to  dwellings 
of  future  construction.  It  should  compel  the  cutting  of  windows  in  all  dark- 
rooms and  faulty  ventilation  should  be  remedied.  In  all  houses  erected  prior  to 
the  passage  of  the  law,  where  connection  with  the  sewer  is  possible,  surface 
closets  should  be  abandoned  and  sanitary  closets  installed.  Repairs  necessary 
to  make  ramshackle  houses  habitable  should  be  insisted  upon.  The  provisions 
of  the  law  should  be  inflexible  in  respect  to  these  things,  so  that  old  conditions 
may  be  put  -in  immediate  line  of  improvement. 

Plans  of  proposed  buildings  should  be  filed  with  the  appropriate  official 
and.  should  not  be  permitted  to  be  used  until  they  shall  have  received  his  ap- 
proval. The  same  procedure  should  control  the  alteration  of  existing  buildings. 
And  before  occupancy  may  be  legally  permitted  it  should  be  the  duty  of  the 
Health  Department  to  inspect  the  house  and  issue  a  certificate  setting  forth  the 
fact  of  its  compliance  with  the  sanitary  and  housing  codes,  in  its  construction 
and  equipment.  Penalties  should  attach  to  violation  of  this  provision  sufficient 
to  insure  its  obedience.  Owners  and  agents  of  all  dwelling  houses  should  be 
required  to  file  with  the  Plealth  Department  a  list  of  their  holdings.  Penalties 
for  violations  of  any  provision  of  the  code  should  be  made  reasonably  severe. 
And  the  enforcement  of  the  code  should  be  placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Health  Department. 

Many  of  the  foregoing  ideas  are  largely  the  substance  of  the  model  law 
written  by  Mr.  Lawrence  Veiller  of  New  York  as  the  framework  for  such  leg- 
islation throughout  the  cities  of  the  United  States.  This  law  was  the  working 
basis  for  the  housing  ordinance  passed  last  year  by  the  city  of  Columbus  (Ohio), 
which  also  has  been  drawn  upon  for  suggestions  serviceable  in  the  preparation 
of  a  skeleton  for  a  Texas  law  or  an  ordinance  for  Texas  cities.  The  law  has 
stood  the  tests  of  the  court  upon  most  of  its  provisions,  and  it  is  widely  favored 
as  i  rneans  toward  bringing  about  those  reformations  that  are  believed  to  be  so 
essential  to  the  proper  development  of  American  cities. 


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SENT  Olf  ILL 

MAR  2  0  2003 

U.  C.  BERKELEY 


SOm-7,'16 


YC  26280 


.'{95066 


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